Ebony and Ivory
by H3artOfS0ul
Summary: Erebus is a seventeen year old Pokemon. He has one purpose in this world and that is to protect his charge, his friend, his brother, Aaron, a rare Riolu. Erebus is an Umbreon and like other dark types, is seen as evil especially since Umbreons "choose" to be dark. He sees himself as twilight, in between light and dark. This is the story about life in the in between. Enjoy.
1. Chapter 1

Prologue

Pokémon. Some call us genetic mutants, some call us demigods, others witches. Whatever we are, we are something better than human and we are, to say the least, awesome. We are born like regular humans, but born a certain Pokémon that looks human until we start to let our powers slip. Then we start to show characteris. Tails, ears, horns, claws... spoons, you get the point. We do our best to stay hidden from humans, the masses still know nothing about us.

Pokémon fight, it's in our nature. We fight over territory, arguments, family feuds, and control over various enterprises. We also fight for the simple reason that for every victory, we gain new powers and some people can't handle that kind of thing. Power I mean. Especially since when Pokémon fight and get stronger, they change, evolve into a bigger, more powerful form. So we fight to achieve that, even if we only do it once. The biggest of these underground fights is between apple and google. Personally, I like the android better, but I jailbroke it so it could sync my iTunes music. They should just combine anyway, all the bloodshed over which phone is used more is stupid and annoying to clean up.

We fight over stuff like this to control areas and gain power, money and so on. We do our best not to kill each other, but things happen. There are agencies, police forces if you will, that keep some of these battle from escalating too far. They're called Rangers but it's way too much bureaucracy involved. When something really needs to be cleaned up, usually bounty hunters are called on. We get stuff done.

But I'll get back to that in just a second.

There are many different types of Pokémon so far. Some think they're better than others, even though we all are basically the same. Even though we are on a higher level than humans, we still have racism. Speciesism? Whatever, the point is some types are discriminated against. Ghost types are seen as creepy people who can't be trusted. Everyone is scared of them. They're dangerous. The only thing worse than a ghost type, is a dark type. People believe dark type reflects your heart. Ghost and dark types aren't discriminated against like my fellow brothers and sisters during the time of Jim Crow, but it's still pretty bad. People give dark and ghost types odd looks and don't usually let them play in any reindeer games. All in all being a dark type is pretty bad unless you're around people who don't care that much.

Thank you, California.

And if you choose to be a dark type, God help you.

I am Erebus Knight, born an Eevee.

I evolved into an Umbreon, a dog like Pokémon that's connected to the moon.

I am a dark type.

I work alongside other dark types, ghost types, and even a few grass and flying types. We control a small chain of donut shops in the bay area and our specialty is the "famous" double decker chocolate donut with chocolate sauce and chocolate chips. Basically a heart attack waiting to happen. It's good money, and an even better cover.

On the real, we're bounty hunters. We handle groups that go out of control. We tuss them up when the Pokémon Rangers' stupid bureaucracy gets in the way. We destroy their business, wreck their equipment, and just make sure no one could get hurt because of some crazy bitches running around. By any means necessary.

Why? because we're the only ones who has the balls to do it.

**Chapter 1**

"Oh my god, E," My friend Lilith, a roselia, a grass type, squealed. She sat down opposite of me on the picnic table I was hanging out at during lunch at school. Lilith just got transferred here to help me out in my territory and I was curious to see how her first day went.

"What happened?" I asked, smirking a little.

"I just got out of media and I got partnered with this cute guy, Oliver!" I glanced behind her and found myself locked in eye contact with Oliver. "And we spent SO much time together and he's super funny and sweet!" She sighed. "Too bad he's human."

"Breloom," I said. Breloom were half grass half fighting type Pokémon and in my opinion they were best of both worlds. Not many hybrids can pull it off.

"He's a breloom?" I nodded and she squealed. "How do you know?"

"We go to the gym together." Gyms are areas for younger Pokémon to stretch our tails out. We played games, raced, spared, it was great! There were even a few other dark types so I wasn't... alone.

"Is gym held tonight?" I nodded. She squealed. "Is Oliver a good guy?"

"I would tap that."

Lilith playfully slapped me.

"Seriously though? He's pretty chill. A little obnoxious, but chill. You should tap that, he's single."

Lilith's slightly brown skin started to blush. She started muttering to herself in spanish and shook her head.

"Seriously, just-" I held my hand up to my face like I was holding a pole and I poked my opposite cheek out with my tongue making it too like I was sucking a dick.

Lilith started blushing harder. "Stop it...! Is Oliver look over here?" I looked behind her and again I locked eyes with Oliver and his twin was whispering about something.

I looked back at Lilith. "Yea, he is, invite him to hangout." As she started to protest, I waved over Oliver and his twin, Rosen (get it? ROSEn?), another breloom.

She glanced behind her and blushed even more as she saw the twins coming. the looked back at me. "Before they come over, how's Aaron doing?"

"He's doing fine, you'll meet him at the gym." Aaron was my charge, a riolu. An odd combination of steel and fighting types who can use the mystical force known as aura. I was told to protect him because some... undesirable Pokémon could be after an aura controlling fighter. He was a grade younger than me and drove me everywhere. We were good friends, well more than that. I've been protecting him even before I was posted as his charge. I was sort of his older brother. His parents died a little while after he was born. I didn't know how. For all I knew some snake-like asshole found out how to get in his house from the secret keeper and avada kadavaded his parents. Or maybe he's from another planet that was dying and his parents died in the resulting explosion but managed to send him here.

However his parents died, if they are truly dead, it didn't really matter. Aaron's aunt took care of the legal stuff while I taught him life lessons and helped him learn. The sex talk was awkward as hell, but I was meant to protect him for the last five years. No one would get past me. Not a nidoqueen, a swarm of golbat, and the biggest Muk I've ever seen. Needless to say, I showered for about a week straight after that fight. "Hey Oliver, Rosen," I said as they sat down next to me.

They twined a "hey" back at me.

"I'm guessing you've already met Lilith, she's a roselia."

The twins both shushed me and looked around. "Don't say that outloud," Rosen hissed. "Humans can't know about us."

I rolled my eyes. "No one could hear me anyway."

"You still need to be careful," Oliver hissed.

"Ok, I promise to be careful." I did a mock "scout's honor" hand gesture. "Lilith has something to ask you, Oliver." I started texting Aaron about volleyball. We play in a year around club. I was recently put in charge of practices and stuff because no one else would step up. Aaron was wondering what the practice would be like today. I told him I posted on the team's facebook page that we'd practice at the Y around 4:30 so me and him could have time for MCJROTC armed drill team.

"Is that ok with you, E?" Lilith asked. I raised an eyebrow at her. "We're coming over to your apartment to eat and hangout and stuff."

I shrugged. Was I smiling? Glaring? I wasn't good with facial expressions. Whatever. "Sure, volleyball's over around 5:30, I should be home by 6."

"Ok," Lilith said. The bell rang and I slipped away.

After school

Aaron and I stood face to face holding drill rifles. He was wearing a pair of plaid shorts and a gray GIANTS t-shirt. He was about half a head shorter than me and just as skinny. His muscles were sort of toned but he didn't fight as much as I did.

We swung and spun heavy rifles around and over our heads and then threw them at each other, catching each others at a moments notice. Drill was fun. "So things have been quiet lately," Aaron said, as we began to do 'tick tock' over and over.

"Ever since that blaziken, we've really had a break," I said, grunting as I stopped my rifle. "But you know that they say... calm before the st-"

"No talking!" the drill leader, Michael barked. "Unless it's about drill or ROTC."

I bit back about thirty different snide comments that would sent Michael's soul tumbling into an abyss where suicide would be the only exit. Yeah dark types aren't evil but... we're still pretty,well, dark. Instead I just kept spinning my rifle and doing throws and stuff with Aaron until it was time to pack up. We that was all wrapped up, Michael called up to huddle up.

"Good practice," he said. "We're ready for competition! Now if only if SOME of us could stop talking-" he gave Aaron and I pointed looks and I had a inclination to throw him from somewhere high. "Dismissed."

"I can't STAND Michael!" I growled, slamming the door to Aaron's Honda Element.

"Yea, he can be a dick," Aaron said, starting up the car.

"He has no leadership qualities whatsoever!" I ran my hand through my hair and exhaled.

"What are we doing for volleyball?"

"Just some drills and shit, something easy. We just had a win, so I think we should have some fun and pretend a ball is someone we hate and spike it to the ground."

"That one's mostly for you, huh?"

"YEP!"

"So you're coming to the gym with us later, right?" I asked Aaron as we got closer to my place. "it starts at 8:30"

"Umm... not sure. I got homework and we already put in a hard day's work."

"Boo hoo hoo!" I laughed. "Finish your math and come over. Lilith and a couple of her friends will be there."

"I don't know if I want to go..."

"...why?"

"...Giovanni scares me..."

"Mmmm..." I nodded. Giovanni was a medicham (half fighting, half psychic type) and the Golden Boy. He's seen as perfect by a lot of the upper level Pokémon. He's never lost a fight and they've even sent him with the Rangers a couple times which is seen as a pretty big deal (if only they knew what I did).

It was also no secret there's a lot of tension between us. Not only is GIovanni an extreme homophobe but also HATES dark types and even more than that, anyone who can compete with him. Basically I'm the trifecta of things he hates.

"Don't worry about him," I said. "I can handle him. He's also a fighting type, so I have a slight advantage by using my psychic moves."

"Slightly."

"Shut up!" I rolled my eyes. "Come over when you're done with your homework."

"Ok, no problem, Darkness!" Aaron said as he pulled into my complex.

"Darkness brothas!" I hollered. "They should've never gave y'all niggas any money! Fuck yo' couch nigga, FUCK YO COUCH!" If you didn't think I was black, now you know.

We were laughing and giggling as he pulled into the last corner of my apartment complex. It was nice. Aaron was one of the few people I could let myself go with

But the second I saw Giovanni standing with his girlfriend, Lilith, the twins, and this dude named Tien, my good mood jumped off a fucking cliff and died. I glanced at Aaron. "God I hope you can finish your homework quick!" I said.

"I really don't want to go now," Aaron said.

"Don't you DARE feel like you can't come over MY house," I declared.

He hesitated. "Whatcha cookin'?" he asked.

I laughed. I grabbed my bags and jumped out the car. "Chicken and grits!" I hollered as I slammed the door. Aaron shook his head and laughed as he began to drive all the three blocks to his house. I hefted my bags towards the little group of people about to intrude upon my home... and Lilith... and the twins... and Tien.

I was pretty sure the smile on my face was either gone or looked fake as fuck as I greeted them. They followed me up to my apartment. I unlocked the door and threw my bags near my bedroom door. The apartment was kind of big. I had a living room, a combined kitchen and eating area, a master bedroom (mine) with its own bathroom, and two other bedrooms with a conjoined bathroom. The carpet was a light brown and the walls were shiny white. It was pretty clean, I was usually here just to shit, shower, and shave.

"Have a seat," I said. "Make yourselves at home." I meant that for all of them... except one. Guess which one. As I stated getting things together, I glanced over to the group. There was Lilith, a shorter latina girl with long black hair. She's bubbly and has a tendency to ramble. She was talking to Giovanni's girl, Abby, a kadabra who's so dumb. Stereotypically speaking, kadabras were powerful pure psychic types that were supposed to be smart. Abby, however, was not. Honestly, the bitch claimed America was in a civil war with North Korea. For those of you who are currently stoned off your ass, a civil war is a war between citizens of the same country, not almost about to nuke some other race halfway across the world.

Aaron and I tried to figure out why such a fucking Golden Boy like Giovanni would date a bimbo that let that kind of stupid shit out of her mouth. We came to the conclusion that it wasn't about what came out of her mouth but what goes in it (or rather comes in it). She was very short, had short brunette hair, tittles, and was very curvy.

The twins... we're cool. Not much to tell really. They were fraternal so there isn't much of a problem telling Oliver and Rosen apart, however some dumb shit always walks up to Oliver saying "Hey, Rosen!" They were mid sized and both stalky. Their faces were accustomed to smiling and goofing off. They were both kind of bulky but in a fit way and according to Tien, they were "fat little oompa loompas growing up."

Tien is another story. I knew him well from this project, he, the twin, and I worked on together last year in english class. This shrimpy-yet-bulky guy needed to talk more. When he actually did, he was funny and rolled with my insanity. Which is weird considering he's my opposite. Literally, he's an espeon. The psychic type, more feline version of umbreon. He was quite possibly the only one who could kick my ass other than Golden Boy, mostly because espeon can use bug type moves... ugh bugs... Even better, he doesn't really care I'm a dark type. Or gay. Neither do the twins. Abby on the other hand is terrified of me. One glance from me will make her jump through the fucking roof. I'm surprised Golden Boy didn't have to drag her in here.

Which made me wonder why the fuck he was here. He doesn't like me at all. Why would he come into my home? Why the hell did he seriously want to come in my house? Did he think I would steal his friends? Did he think I was trying to weed my way into his life to corrupt others to be like me?

Whatever.

/Break\

If you're going to entertain a group of people but don't plan on being in the conversations, I suggest high quality earphones and underground rap. Tech N9ne, Krizz Kaliko, Craig Smith, all that stuff. Get's you so into the music, you kind of forget what's around you.

I finished the chow mein and put that in a giant bowl and stuffed it into the oven to keep warm. When I turned around, Lilith was standing right there. She pulled out one of my earphones.

"You're really sociable this evening," she said. "We've been trying to talk to you for a while."

I forced a smile. "Sorry, got caught up in Tech N9ne and my mind went somewhere else." As far away from Golden Boy as possible.

"What Tech N9ne are you listening to?"

I smiled. I pulled out my iDriod (jailbreaking your droid so it'll sync with iTunes, for the win!) and fiddled with some of the controls for a second. In a moment, hardcore rap music blared on the wireless speakers I set up throughout the apartment. Lilith started nodding her head and Tien seemed to be getting into it. The twins were looking at me like this was the last thing they expected to be playing on my speakers. I smiled as started to groove to the music, then my eyes trailed to Giovanni and Abby.

Listening to the lyrics, I guess I could see why Giovanni had a protective arm around his cowering girlfriend. The song was low and creepy and the chorus went "When I was one, and a two, and a three, and a four I knew I was a special one who had a little more And they wondered why I was plotting, rotten to the core It was nothing but an itty-bitty demon...! There's a demon inside of me! Can I kill it? Hell naw! Can I kill it? Hell naw! Can I kill it? Hell naw!..." I can see why they would fear a dark type playing it. So I stopped the music and set my iDroid down on the counter and went back to cooking.

Tien

Erebus was a cool guy when he wasn't intentionally sneaking up on people. He was just as nice as any other person so why should it matter what kind of music he listened it, who he decides to like, or that he went Umbreon. He's still a nice enough guy, again when he wasn't sneaking up on you.

That's why I said I would go over his place with the twins. Honestly, it seemed like a fun time. I began to wonder why, after most of us decided to go, Giovanni would declare he and Abby were coming along. It made no sense. Especially since no one said anything to Erebus about it.

I realized that wasn't a good idea when Erebus got home and his demeanor changed completely. When he greeted us, his smile seemed real, but his eyes told a different story. We sat around his kitchen table and talked about Pokémon things when we realized that our host wasn't involved in the conversation at all. Lilith tried to get his attention, but he was preoccupied with his music and cooking so Lilith skipped over while he put the chow mein in the oven.

After he and Lilith had a little back and forth, Erebus started playing some dark rap music that I heard my brother, Ian, blasting when the 'rents weren't home. To be honest, it was pretty good. I watched Erebus as he slowly started to loosen up. I saw him start to sway and dance to the music and even start to lip sync. As his eyes slowly started to brighten, he saw something and shut the music off. I looked around to see what could have made him change so suddenly. Of course it was Abby pressed up against Giovanni as if Erebus might suddenly decide to rape and kill us all. As if.

"Cut the music back on!" Lilith protested.

Erebus shook his head. He turned to Lilith like he was about to say something when he stopped himself. He looked past her and just above us and smirked. "When the hell did you get here?"

"About the same time the neena started playing," a voice came from above of us. We all jumped up and Giovanni got into a fighting stance. "Relax," the newcomer said, fading out of existence. "I'm a friend," he said as he appeared mid stride in front of Erebus. They shook hands and pulled one another into a half hug.

"Hey, Morty," Erebus said. He turned to us. "This is Morty, a haunter- a ghost type who really needs to stop trying to scare people."

A wicked grin spread across Morty's face. "But it's so fun! And you do it too!"

"To people I know!" Erebus half smirked.

"Whatever!" Morty said, waving his hand dismissively. "Do me a favor and bring the neena back."

"Don't play that crap any more," a voice rang out.

"Giovanni, don't be a dick," Rosen said.

"Yea, we're guest here," Oliver said.

"An uninvited one," I heard someone mutter. I'm pretty sure Erebus let that one slip but I couldn't be sure.

"I don't want to heard that God-awful music." Giovanni said. He acted like he owned the place. I kind of agreed with him, now that I think about it. I could see the others nodding their heads. Abby, the twins, even Lilith seemed unsure.

Morty snorted. I finally looked him up and down. He was wearing a Marine Corps. muscle shirt that showed off pale, but strong looking arms. He wore a pair of black workouts shorts. He had a build somewhere between a runner and a hockey player. His hazel like eyes shone with mischief as he took in Giovanni. "Nice try, psychic," he finally said. "But this ain't your house. I suggest you step off."

Giovanni's eyes narrowed. "What are you going to do, _ghost_."

Morty got a crazy grin on his face, showing off his silver braces. His dirty blonde hair turned a tint of purple and suddenly grew longer.

"This is going to be good," Erebus muttered, not looking up. I don't see how it could be. Despite the fact that Psychics are weak against ghost and ghost are immune to fighting, Morty was still susceptible to Giovanni's strong psychic attacks.

Giovanni stood and got ready for a fight. Morty's grin only got crazier, then he did the oddest thing. He opened his now huge and jagged mouth and stuck out his tongue. It grew to a humungous length and with a flick of his neck, Morty had hit Giovanni with a powerful lick attack.

Giovanni clenched his teeth in anger. Morty pulled his tongue back and glowed with a faint tint of purple. Giovanni's hair had turned pink in return and his legs started to turn pink as well. They were powering up, showing their traits.

Giovanni's eyes glowed a faint pink as he flung his hand out. The masses of blueish purple energy formed as Giovanni unleashed a powerful psyshock attack. Morty just grinned. He leaned away from the first mass, sidestepped the second, but the third hit him square in the chest, sending him flying back.

Morty groaned and got back up to his feet. He looked like he was struggling. I almost felt bad for the poor ghost type. He was breathing hard and clutching his chest, head hung low. Morty slowly brought his head up and revealed... a huge grin spread across his face. That grin launched itself at us. Before Morty reached Giovanni however, Giovanni was slammed into the wall with a powerful confusion attack while Morty was sent flying into the couch on the other side of the room..

"Not in the house," Erebus said, a faint yellow ring around the back of his outstretched hand. He brought it down and continued to fry the chicken. From the coach, Morty waved his hand and Erebus' phone flew into the ghost's hand. He unlocked it and started going through it. There was so much tension in the air you could practically cut it with a knife. And the silence was deafening. I jumped in my seat when there was a knock at the door. Without looking up, Erebus waved a hand and the door flew open.

"Hey, Aaron," he said. "Foods just about ready, grab a plate-"

"Hell yeah!" Morty yelled. "You have this song?"

"_Lamborghini Mercy yo' chick she so thirsty..._"

Erebus smiled. "Yea, the song is so stupid but it's catchy."

"And you don't even drive..." Giovanni sneered over the music.

Erebus raised an eyebrow at him. He flicked his hand and the front door closed. "I have my license. I don't drive because I don't have a car."

"I can afford one," Giovanni said, smiling. "I drive. I don't have to be driven around by someone younger than me." Oh God he's playing this game. Giovanni's playing his game where he emasculated his competition. He's trying to show he is the best of the best. He needed to show his dick was the biggest.

"Didn't your parents buy that for you," Abby said, then she gasped. Giovanni's face had turned into a glare that could rival an absol's.

"That's not the point," Giovanni growled. He turned his attention to Erebus. "At least myfamily can afford to buy me an SUV. For me and my friends to ride in."

Erebus shook his head, rolled his eyes, and exhaled. He ran his hand through his hair and said, "Food's ready. Lilith, if you want your peanut butter crackers, the crackers are in the cabinet next to the peanut butter."

Lilith grabbed Oliver by the hand. "Come help me!" she said.

"Oh this song's even better!" Morty yelled.

"_Listen to these tracks, BITCH!"_

Erebus smirked and started dancing as he started making plates for everyone, setting some on the counter area. Yes everyone, I counted, even Giovanni had a plate. Erebus took three and walked over to the couch. He set the plates on the side table. I walked over to grab myself and Rosen a plate as Erebus asked, "Morty, wanna see something funny?"

Morty grinned like a maniac. Erebus bounded past me into the fridge, he pulled out a giant bottle of Smirnoff Ice. Morty laughed. "Bring that over here."

Erebus walked over to Morty, undoing the cap. Morty got up, turned around and leaned back, opening his mouth. Lilith started giggling too. She, Erebus, and Aaron started singing along as Erebus poured vodka down Morty's throat.

"_She said look ma no hands.._"

Erebus set the bottle right back up the same time Morty closed his mouth and stood up. He started dancing to the song back to his seat on the couch next to Aaron. Erebus came over and sat next to Morty, draping his legs over his friend's lap. He reached over and grabbed their three plates and they dug in. They instantly jumped into a conversation about playing sports with humans. I sat next to Rosen, Oliver, and Abby. Before I could even take a bite out of Erebus' cooking, he called me over. "Hey, Tien, Rosen, come here, we got a question for you two."

Rosen and I picked up our plates and walked over to the couch. We stood there awkwardly for a moment before Erebus said, "Well, have a seat!" With a wave of his hand, the other, smaller couch pulled itself up behind Rosen and I and we both sat down hard. "Tien, you do wrestling with the humans, and Rosen you play soccer with them. Isn't it easy as hell to hold yourself back?"

I shrugged. "Kind of. As long as I don't get too angry, I'm fine."

"And you don't use your powers at all?" Morty asked me.

I shook my head. "I hold them back."

"Doesn't that throw off your game though?"

"Yea but it makes it fair."

Morty nodded as he considered this. "What about you... Rosen, was it? Soccer is a lot more competitive than anything, how do you deal with it?"

"It's not really a problem for me."

"Yea, Rosen is pretty mellow," Erebus said, grinning.

Rosen cracked a smile back.

"See, so it _is_ fair that I play volleyball," Erebus said. "And if I run across a fellow Pokémon who tries to cheat, I handle it."

Morty rolled his eyes. "How?"

"Status effect move, get them ejected from the game... I don't do anything rash." I think he said that more for our sake than anything. Erebus turned to us. "So how's school?"

Generic conversation ensued! There really wasn't much else for us to talk about. We sat around eating for the longest time, but Erebus, as always, made off-hand comments or jokes that started to make us all laugh. He picked on Aaron and I the most. I have no clue why he would make fun of Aaron so much, but he and I, being literal opposites, probably made him more inclined to mess with me- and I was an easy target, I suppose.

Oliver and Lilith stayed in the kitchen, flirting it up while Rosen and I talked to Aaron, Morty, and Erebus. It was kind of nice, sitting around talking to new people. Usually I'm just around Giovanni's normal crew of people. We were all really tight but there was something missing. I was glad to be spending time with someone other than Giovanni for once.

Hmm... Giovanni. He was still at the kitchen table, glaring, obviously not in a good mood. Abby sat next to him looking like a punished dog.

"Time for gym!" Erebus undraped his legs from Morty. "Put your dishes in the sink, I'll handle them later."

Erebus

Once all the dishes were in the sink, we had to decide who was driving.

"We should take the least amount of cars possible," Lilith announced. "I'll drive with Abby, Oliver, and Rosen, they can ride with me. Morty you going?"

"No, I don't really go to your guys' gym." And with that, he faded out.

"So then... Giovanni, you wanna drive?"

I rolled my eyes at that one. I knew his response would be somewhere along the lines of 'No I don't want to drive these losers' so I just said, "I'm riding with Aaron."

Lilith nodded and then said the words that nearly made me blow a gasket. "Ok then, Giovanni and Tien, you can ride with him."

Because that seemed like a fucking peachy idea.

When we got into Aaron's car, I immediately blasted the first CD that loaded. Turns out Aaron had been rocking out to the old school rap playlist I made for him. So I sung along to _Rapper's Delight, It's Tricky, _and _Party Up, _most of the way. After that I kept fast forwarding through songs.

"Eventually," Aaron said, "You're going to find another song you like, they're your songs!"

"Eventually," I agreed, hitting fast forward again.

The gym was held in IHS on the other side of town so it was a long ride. Giovanni was scowling in the back seat and Tien looked to fall asleep despite the volume of the music. Aaron pulled into IHS and parked next to Lilith's maroon 2012 audi Q4. I find it odd how she has a audi Q4, brand new, top of the line, fully customized to fit her needs and doesn't even go on hardcore missions for our, uh, line of work. I bust my ass pretty much every week busting OTHER people's asses and yet I've been car-less for almost an entire year? Where the fuck is my caddy? Or lambo? Hell, I'd take a fucking ford focus... Ok no I wouldn't, I'd set that shit on fire. Ford stands for Found On Roadside Dead.

Rant over.

Anyway, Aaron parked, and we all hopped out. I wrapped my arm around Aaron's shoulder and linked arms with Lilith. "Let the fun begin."

The gym leader, Whitney, a miltank, had us partner up and naturally I went with Aaron. The twins partnered up, the girls partnered , and that left Tien to be stuck with Golden Boy.

Whitney skipped in front of us when we were all partnered up. Her pink hair shimmered in the air and her smile lit up the room. "Today we're going to work on partnered attacks. With your partner, figure out a combo move you can do. First partners to master learn the skill and the best partners will receive a prize."

Tien

Giovanni and I couldn't figure out how to combine moves. He kept wanting me to boost his special fight moves with some sort of psychic boost, but we were totally out of sync. He would put so much power into one attack, I couldn't keep up and the move would dissolve. Giovanni was way too strong.

"Come on, dude," the way he said _dude_ made it sound like a swear word. "Get on my level!"

"Start off slower," I said back. He leaned forward and cocked an ear at me. Ok so I talk quietly sometimes, especially when I'm nervous. "I said 'start slower.'"

"Just get on my level!" GIovanni said bitterly. "We have to get this right first!"

He was right. I had to get on his level and win whatever prize. Had to win. Had to do it first. No other option. Had to achieve this first, we had to-

ZAP! FLASH! BANG!

There was a bright flash of light and an explosion. Everyone was stunned into silence. We were all looking to the other side of the room.

"Well... that happened," Erebus said, dusting his hands off. He turned toward Whitney. "I believe we win the first part of that challenge."

Whitney smiled and started to wade through the still shocked crowd. Giovanni, of course, was the first to speak. "How do we know you did it first?" he protested.

Erebus looked over at us. Then he jerked a thumb to the wall. "The giant hole, maybe," he said in the best Dr. Zoidberg impression I've ever heard.

Giovanni growled as Whitney handed Aaron and Erebus two full restores each. "Let's do this," Giovanni growled to me.

We finally decided that I would be the base with a signal beam attack, a bug type move, and he would boast it with a simple psyshock attack. It took a couple tries but we managed just in time for us to show off for part two of the challenge.

"To decide who mastered their combined attack the best," Whitney began, "I have set up wooden dummies to pop up, some will display citizens, others will display criminals. You and your partner must blast the bad ones, while leaving the good ones in tact in a certain amount of time. Who's first?"

Not many people who went up were able to do it. No one scored higher than a 51 out of 100. I didn't expect any to get any higher than that.

That is, until my friends went up.

The twins went up and combined a bullet seed and an energy ball attack and ended up with an 83. I was kind of surprised to see Lilith and Abby work so well together. Abby did a psychic boost on Lilith's petal dance. WIth their storm of petals, the scored a 95.

Our turn.

I got up on stage and tried to ignore all the eyes on me.

"Go, Tien, you smexy beast!" Rosen yelled. I felt my face heat up and I smiled. My friends always knew how to embarass me. I calmed down and focused. In an instant I felt the changes happen. I felt my ears elongate and fork out. I always hated that. My ears were so floppy and big, I just felt like a weirdo.

I felt my forked tail start to poke out from my cargo shorts, and finally my small red gem poked out of my forehead. I opened my eyes and Giovanni stood in front of my, hair pink, legs pink, and his usual chocolate-pudding-colored skin was slightly paler. He nodded at me. I nodded back. he called for Whitney to let us begin. There was a buzzer.

To my left, a wooden cutout of a man dressed in all black and holding a knife. I shot off a quick signal beam and Giovanni boosted it with a psywave. Giovanni directed the beam and blasted the cut out to pieces. I poured my power into that single attack and Giovanni continued to direct it, missing all the "good cut outs" and obliterating all the bad ones. When we were done we both looked at the scoreboard. Perfect 100 out of 100! Giovanni held up his hands and shouted out a "Whoo!" He started to air guitar, feeding off the energy of the now fanatic crowd.

"Alright, that's enough," Whitney called. "It's time for the last group to go on."

As Giovanni and I left the stage, Erebus and Aaron walked on stage. Erebus looked bored out of his mind. He straight up looked like a kid sitting in math class or someone looking through tumblr and not being able to find anything good. Aaron however looked nervous next to his friend. His eyes were wide and he kept glancing around. When they had finally got to the center, Erebus turned to face Aaron. Aaron slowly started to show his riolu parts. His face had black making go across them, his ears drooped a little and turned black, the backs of his hands had silverish nubs popped out.

When he was done, Erebus shifted. If I'd blinked, I would've missed it. He ears popped out, all black with yellow rings near the tips. His tail sprang loose and like his ears, had a yellow ring around it near the tip. Yellow rings also appeared on the backs of his hands and knees. As I looked him up and down I couldn't help but feel like there was a ring missing somewhere and his eyes... They were still normal colored. Umbreon had bright red eyes that were almost terrifying. Erebus was holding back.

To my surprise, Erebus started to crackle with electricity.

"Zap cannon," I heard Lilith giggle.

"What?" Oliver asked.

"Erebus, and all umbreon for that matter, can learn zap cannon, an electric type move," Lilith explained. "But E took it a step further thanks to his obsession with Naruto. He learned how to channel the electrical current throughout his body, like Sasuke. And now Aaron's going to amp it up with his aura powers."

Whitney called for this duo to start and sure enough Aaron started to glow blue. As one, Erebus and Aaron moved, with a giant blast of energy. It looked almost like electricity, but it looked blurry. They moved together using what looked like Northern Shaolin style of kung fu. As they blasted the last target, the buzzer rang out. Aaron and Erebus both turned back to human form in an instant. Erebus glanced at the scoreboard and smirked. He nudged Aaron and pointed. I looked too... Perfect 100 out of 100...!

Giovanni growled. He jumped all the way from his seat to the edge of the stage. I quickly followed. As we walked toward the duo, Erebus took a step forward, one foot slightly at an angle, his body slightly following suite. His hands were at his sides, but tense like they would snap up at any moment and his eyes were dark.

"We won that!" Giovanni hollered.

"Our time was was faster," Erebus stated calmly.

"Bullshit! You took forever before you even started!"

Erebus shrugged. "And yet..." was all he said.

Giovannie growled.

"We won!" Aaron suddenly said. "Just... leave us alone."

Giovanni turned to Aaron. His fist suddenly caught fire and he lunged at Aaron. Aaron flinched and put his hands but Giovanni's fist never got the chance to connect. Erebus stepped in between the two and caught Giovanni at the wrist. Erebus did some crazy wax-on-wax-off style and made Giovanni stumble and the flames went out. With his other hand, Erebus palmed Giovanni in the chest causing him to stumble back further. Giovanni righted himself and started to charge again.

"That's enough!" Whitney called putting some bass into her voice. Giovanni's foot got caught by something. I'm guessing on an ice beam attack from Whitney. "Giovanni and Tien got the faster time- HOWEVER!... Erebus and Aaron displayed much more mastery of the skill. Now... I suppose if you want... we could have a double battle to decide this..."

Giovanni twisted his foot expertly, breaking the ice his foot was encased in. He cracked his knuckles and shifted into his medicham-ish form. I, quickly as I could, shifted as well. A shadow passed over Erebus and he was completely ready with Aaron by his side. I also noticed something different about Erebus... and odd hue of yellow on his forehead. Whatever I couldn't take a chance and get distracted. These two were dangerous.

Before anything else could be said or done, Erebus stopped. He reached into his pocket and pulled out... pulled out his phone!

"Yea... yea... ok... one sec," Erebus put his hand on his phone. He looked to Whitney. "What's the prize?"

Whitney pulled out two soothe bells.

Erebus made a face. "We're good, you win or whatever not worth it." Erebus shifted back, as he turned on his heel and went back to talking on his phone. Aaron stood there awkwardly until Lilith called him over.

When I looked at Giovanni, he looked steaming mad. "Did he just _deny_ my challenge!? Did he seriously just walk off like that?"

"Yes he did!" some ghost type chick yelled out. "Said it wasn't worth it too!" She and some other ghost types began to snicker. That did not help Giovanni's mood at all.

"Enough," Whitney called one again. "Giovanni, Tien, please come with me."

"I can't believe she wants us to do this!" Giovanni had been ranting and raving for the longest time.

"She wants _you_ to do it, last time I checked," Rosen said with a grin.

"That's right," Oliver concurred. "We don't have to do anything."

"You probably should go with Giovanni," Lilith purred to Oliver.

"Why?"

"Because I'll to be there more times than not," she said with a flirtatious smile. I've never seen such a blatant scene of flirting since Abby and Giovanni first got together. Speaking of which, Abby was cowering next to me instead of have her fingers happily interlocked with Giovanni's, and per ush.

"Well we better find him, Aaron needs to go home," Lilith said, gesturing to the poor junior standing next to her.

"He's over this way," Aaron said.

"Gotta love aura."

Erebus

I was standing alone in a corner tucked away at IHS. I waited for Martin Harris, a spiritomb, and a powerful one at that. His nickname is Mata but I never knew why. The temperature suddenly dropped a few degrees. I suddenly felt a hundred and eight different reason to run and hide under my covers and stay there until I died. Instead I smiled as Martin's body started to form.

He stood in front of me, dressed normally. He wore checkered vans, a pair of black skinny jeans, a black "Dirty & Nasty & Filthy & Dubstep" t-shirt with tattoo sleeves on that depicted angels versus demons. On one of his wrist, he wore a bracelet that read "H-21". Around his neck was a roman-like lantern medallion held by a chain and the links resembled daggers. He looked like an average teenager fighting against the man, you know, other than the fact that his face was a giant swirling vortex of purple spirits with big yellow eyes, one of which had a giant spiral in it.

"Hey, Martin," I said.

"Erebus, buddy, how you doin'?"

I shrugged. "Can't complain. And yourself?"  
"Busy," he sighed, making a face. "Too busy, that's why I'm coming to you. A problem needs to be solved."

I raised an eyebrow. "What kind of problem?"

Martin smiled. "A little competition. Another donut chain has opened up and we need to handle it."

I felt myself smirk. "Really? Seems like a human problem to me."

Martin chuckled and shook his head. "If only it were that easy. They're another group of Pokémon. Intel has it they've developed a serum that gets people hooked."

"So I destroy their building so they can't open up?"

"That doesn't solve the problem of the serum. It's being brewed in San Francisco and if our information is correct it's set to be released and distributed in a few hours. The whole batch needs to be destroyed. One drop can, for lack of a better phrase, fuck a lot of people up. You need to get to San Fran and destroy the serum. Luckily it's all in one giant vat. I believe some C4 can handle that problem."

"Yeah but there's another problem, I don't have a way-" I stopped talking. I heard footsteps around the corner as well as people talking. Martin had already changed his face to normal, and hidden in his hand was a shadow ball.

I turned my head back at the corner expecting the worse. I could almost hear their...

"-to love aura," Lilith said. The group I left suddenly rounded the corner and stopped as they saw me there with Martin. He had long since extinguished his shadow ball and he was actually smiling. "Hello, Lilith," he exclaimed. "And Aaron as well."

"Hey, Martin," Lilith said with a tight smile, getting slightly closer to Aaron. "How've you been?"

"I've been well." Why does he talk like he's a thousand years old? He's barely a couple months older than me. "And I hope the same goes for you."

"Yea, I've been great. E and his friends have gotten me pretty used to this part of the Bay in just a couple days."

I reached over and tapped Martin on the shoulder to get his attention and suppressing the chill to the depths of my soul (what little of it I still have), I said, "So, like I said, I can't get to San Francisco."

Martin looked confused. "Why not?"

"Because I'm not borrowing Aaron or Lilith's car for that. And my last car sort of just... returned to nature, like Michael Kelso's van."

Martin suddenly slapped himself on the forehead. "Sorry about your last car but I knew I was forgetting something." He reached into his back pocket and tossed me a small black box.

I caught it and sucked in air. It was one of those new fangled keyless car keys for push to start vehicles. "Really?" I exclaimed.

Martin smiled. "You deserve it, Erebus. You do a lot and you should have a top of the line lambo."

"A lambo?" I said incredulously. "You couldn't have gotten me something a little more... low key?"

"Fuck low key."

"Well what kind of lambo is it? I hate two door cars because I can't fit." I guess that's what I get for being six-two. "I prefer SUVs, you know that, bro."

Martin raised an eyebrow. "You're seriously complaining after I go out and buy you a lambo AND customize if for you?"

I raised my own eyebrow. "You kind of caused my last car to... let's just say, not be usable." At this point in the conversation, I was surprised the others had stayed quiet. I knew Aaron didn't like Martin and Lilith was terrified of him, but the others couldn't tell he was a Pokémon and even if they could, they couldn't tell he was a spiritomb.

Martin brought his hand to his face in embarrassment. "My bad. But trust me, this lambo you'll like." He waved to me, Lilith, and Aaron. "I'll send you the directions later!" With that his mouth open up with and his body, from the neck down, turned into purple mist while one hundred and eight green blobs shot out of him disembodied head, which disappeared in a cloud of purple mist too. I blinked and turned to Aaron, smiling and dangling the keyless key.

"I think we're going to leave the Element here and have some fun!"

*for this fanfic's purpose, this is true

**A/N So here's the first chapter, it's kind of slow start but believe me, it picks up. I have the whole thing story boarded so I'm hoping to update this thing as much as possible, maybe month to month bases considering most of the chapters will be short after this. Chapter 2 should be up by the time you actually get to this point so WHOOP there it is! An action scene is coming up very soon :P**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Erebus

I turned and faced the group with a huge grin on my face, happy to have a car. "Was that a spiritomb? What were you doing with it?"

Of course... "Yes, Giovanni, that was a spiritomb. And *he's* a good friend of mine."

"They're evil!" he yelled.

"No, not all are evil. If Martin was, he'd be trapped in an Odd Keystone and thrown in some abandoned well, or if he managed to escape that, he'd be hunted and killed."

"He could be in hiding."

"Then why the hell did he reveal himself for so long? Think about it, he had enough time to drive my new lambo here and even chat it up. Martin and I have hung out a lot longer thanthis, like a few hours. You'd think the Rangers would be on top of it if Martin was evil." I had no idea if any of this was true. Martin was good, he could be running from the Rangers. But I wasn't going to let Giovanni know that. Instead I walked around him and started searching for my new car.

I walked toward the parking lot wondering where Martin parked my new lamborghini. Behind me Lilith was complaining. "How come I don't get to ride in the lambo?"

"'You are never, ever driving my audi Q4 so long as I live'," I quoted her, even getting the slight spanish accent right.

"Shut up, I gave you hella rides!"

"After saying I owed you favors," I shot back with a smile on my face. "And it wasn't THAT many rides. Besides, you have to drive Abby and the twins back to my place to get their cars, Ms. Let's-take-as-few-cars-as-possible."

"I still don't understand why Aaron can get a ride. He has to drive the element."

"We'll come back and pick it up or something. He cannot miss my car's maiden voyage."

Lilith huffed again. "Morty has to miss it to."

I winked at her. "You'd think so." When we got to the parking lot, I hit the unlock button on the keyless key. I heard the car beep but didn't see where it was coming from. I turned my body and hit the unlock again and that's when I saw it. A deep blue Lamborghini Urus! The first Lamborghini sport utility vehicle. Top of the line in terms of power, speed, and style. These bitches weren't even out yet! I stared at it in complete awe. I glanced over at Lilith and noticed a touch of drool coming out of the side of her mouth. "Let's get in!"

Tien

Erebus practically ran to his new car. He slowly opened the door and slid into the driver's seat. Aaron just as slowly sat in the front seat next to him. I got in on the driver's side and slid into the buttery seat. I was pulling door close went I felt someone suddenly grab it and open all the way. I looked it was Morty, grinning like a madman. He pushed me into the middle seat next to Giovanni as he climbed into the car.

"I heard someone finally got a new car!" Morty said.

"Finally!" Erebus said. His hands were gently feeling the wheel. his right hand slowly went to the manual gear shift next to his leg. Then it ran its way up to the complicated looking radio system just above that. "I can DJ while I drive..." he whispered.

"Well, start her up!" Morty whooped.

Erebus push the start button and the engine roared to life and all sorts of lights cut on. Erebus moaned, Morty whooped, and even Aaron looked excited. Erebus put the Urus into reverse and pulled out. He expertly shifted into first and blasted out of the parking lot almost immediately hitting a red light.

"Crank the tunes," Morty said. "There's a CD already in, see what Martin left us."

Erebus shrugged and hit a button on his steering wheel.

"WEEELLL!" Erebus, Aaron, and Morty started cracking up.

"Lamborghini mercy," the three of them sang along, "yo chick she so thirsty, I'm in that juicy lambo with your girl she tryin' to jerk me!"

"This song is so fucking ghetto!" Erebus said, cranking it up.

"But you love it!" Aaron said.

"That I do!" Erebus punched it after the light finally changed. He made a left and started toward the freeway.

"Drop it to the floor, make that ass shake!" they sung along. "Whoa, make the ground move, that's an ass quake! Built a house up on that ass, that's an ass state Roll my weed on it, that's an ass tray..."

"Let's just fast forward to my favorite part... there we go!"

The person singing this part was hard to understand but these three said it in english. "Well, it is a weeping and a mourning and a gnashing of teeth in the dancehall. And who no have teeth gwan rub pon them gums cause, when time it comes to my sound, which is the champion sound. The bugle has blown fi many times, and it still have one more time left. Cause the amount of stripe weh deh pon our shoulder."

"Here comes Kanye!" Morty yelled.

"Let the suicide doors up

I threw suicides on the tour bus

I threw suicides on the private jet

You know what that mean, I'm fly to death

I step in Def Jam building like I'm the shit

Tell 'em give me fifty million or I'm-a quit

Most rappers taste level ain't at my waist level"

Erebus started to push a level on the stereo controls and the bass got so loud I felt it in my bones.

"Turn up the bass 'til it's up-in-your-face level

Don't do no press but I get the most press, kid

Plus, yo my bitch make your bitch look like Precious

Something about Mary, she gone off that Molly

Now the whole party is melted like Dalí

Now everybody is movin' they body

Don't sell me apartment, I'll move in the lobby

Niggas is loiterin' just to feel important

You gon' see lawyers and niggas in Jordans"

"Alright, hitting fast forward!" Erebus said.

Then the song changed to a bunch of gibberish and then went into, "I didn't write this shit myself!"

"My president is black, my lambo is blue, and I'll be goddamned if my rims ain't too!"

"OK," Erebus said as he ejected the disc. "I think Martin just put a bunch of songs on a CD that said 'lambo' or lamborghini' a bunch of times." He reached into the middle section between him and Aaron and he pulled out a wire. "Here, Morty, you Dj for a bit, pick something good."

"Do we really have to sit here and listen to more of your god awful music?" Giovanni said. he was leaned up against the door with a sour look on his face.

"Shut up," Morty said, sounding more bored than anything. "Seriously, you're only jealous because you were talking all that good shit about your parents being able to afford a really good car or whatever and now you're riding in his top of the line lambo. Infact... couldn't you buy _a_ car at anytime, E?" Morty asked.

"Could've bought _a_ car but not the one I wanted," Erebus responded. "And I had something more important that I wanted to buy."

"What was that?" Aaron asked.

I saw Erebus smile in his rear view mirror. "Don't you worry about it, dude." He reached in between his seat and Aaron's and pulled out a chord. "Here, Morty, put on some Tupac. Preferably, _Changes_."

"I told you I don't want to listen to your crappy rap music!" Giovanni hollered.

Erebus rolled his eyes. "Just listen to the words..." Morty plugged his iTouch into the lambo's system. Erebus hit a button and the car was filled with a cool piano beat. It started off pretty sad, with the rapper, who I assume is Tupac, talking about suicide but the more I listened the more I understood the struggle back then for the average black male, but I knew that wasn't why Erebus wanted to play that.

Giovanni was being a dick to Erebus because he was a dark type (and gay, but that's another issue). For years, dark and ghost types have been put down and looked at funny because of their slightly dark nature. They were scary and had scary powers. Their powers could affect people's minds and they felt so comfortable in the darkness, but that doesn't mean they're evil.

As Pokémon grew, our ancestors pretty much stayed away from each other and did their dealings in secret families, not really interacting with anyone they didn't trust. Legends started arising and certain groups got bad reputations. It wasn't until the last hundred years when our people stopped acting like a bunch of secluded and anti-social jackasses, that people started to see that dark and ghost types weren't all that bad, but obviously not everyone sees that way.

Erebus had Morty play _Changes_ because the struggle of the blacks reflected exactly what those two had to deal with. Personally, I didn't see it. Erebus was a nice guy, even made me cake on my birthday last year and had our english class sing to me. Did the same for Rosen and Oliver, and now that I think about it, quite a few people scattered throughout the school. He had a good heart and that's what mattered. Whatever caused him to go dark was his business, just like becoming a psychic was mine.

The song ended and I smiled. "I really liked it," I said.

Erebus raised an eyebrow to me and cut the music.

"I said, I really liked it," I repeated.

Erebus smiled. "You got the reference, Tien?"

Morty clapped me on the shoulder. "Nice, dude. Want some rap of your own? Not the hardcore stuff, just some easy listening like Tupac and Hopsin."

I thought about it for a minute. "I think I'll just hit my brother up, he has a lot of this kind of music."

"Ian?" Erebus asked surprised. "I'm surprised he's into this kind of music."

I shrugged. "Guess he likes it for some reason."

"It might speak to him," Aaron said. "Lyrics might match up to how he's feeling."

"Alrighty," Erebus said, pulling his new car into a full stop. "I'll see you guys at school tomorrow."

I didn't even realize that we were back at his place. Giovanni reached for the door but I said something that made him stop. "Giovanni has something he needs to tell you from Whitney."

Giovanni groaned. "Whitney wants me to spend time with you outside of

school and gym."

Erebus

Well fuck me hard. I put the lambo's emergency brake on. "Why?" I asked.

"Because she knows you and I don't get along-"

Morty snorted. "Gee, wonder who's fault that is...!"

Giovanni shot Morty a glare but continued on. "So she thinks I can learn from you by spending time and seeing how you operate. She wants Tien to join in."

I glanced at Morty. "How much time?"

Giovanni shrugged. "As much as possible, I guess, when are you free?"

Ok before I continue, Pokémon all have weird abilities, not just awesome attacks. Most of the time they only work for you. Like my special ability is fast reflexes and the I can hide really well. Aaron can use his aura to find people and sometimes see incoming attacks. Morty can control shadows and meld into them. But other abilities work with each other, like if you've known someone a really long time and gotten close to them, a lot of the time close friends can do spectacular things. I've known Morty since before I went umbreon and he helped me through a lot of rough patches in my life. As a byproduct, Morty and I have a few abilities that we can use together.

One of which is limited telepathy. We have to be looking directly into each other eyes for it to work (we could also get the gist of what the other was saying if we were close). I looked into Morty's hazel eyes and thought, *This is going to be bad.*

*Damned straight! How are you going to work this?*

*I haven't the foggiest! I have a shit load of missions lined up!*

*Maybe you can fit them in.*

*What do you mean?*

*Do your missions early, squeeze them in a couple hours every week, do other missions.*

*There goes my sleep...*

*You know, you don't HAVE to agree to help them*

*I'm not helping THEM, I'm helping Tien, he's a nice guy.*

Morty laughed out loud. *You just wanna tap that!*

I rolled my eyes *Yea, ok, maybe, but he is actually a nice-*

"Guys, you're doing the telepathy thing," Aaron interrupted.

I shook my head. "Right, umm..." I sighed. "I actually have somewhere to be right now, so can we talk about this tomorrow at school?"

Giovanni set his jaw and nodded, instantly springing from my car. I felt better with his presence gone and I noticed Aaron relax as well. There was something about Giovanni that I couldn't quite put my finger on.

"So, um..." Tien stuttered. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Later, dude," I smiled at him. He got out and shut the door.

"You want to fuck him!" Morty said out loud. I flipped him off. He just laughed it off. "I got to get going, later you two!" And with that, Morty just faded away.

I put the urus into gear and started to drive Aaron home. I glanced at the clock. It was about eight o'clock. "You got dinner for tonight?"

Aaron shook his head. "Auntie Anne's not going to be home."

Anne was Aaron's legal guardian but that's just on paper. Like I said, I'm responsible for more than just his safety. "I have to get to San Francisco in a couple hours, but I can cook you something real quick if you want and then just floor it."

"I'm actually full from earlier." We fell into a quick comfortable silence. "I'm so unused to you driving!"

I laughed. "Yea it's been awhile since I've had to drive, but this thing is perfect!" I pulled into Aaron's empty driveway. I reached into my back pocket and pulled out my wallet. I handed him a twenty. "Get a pizza if you get hungry. In fact, just order and stick it in the fridge, I might be hungry later and not want to cook."

Aaron took the twenty. "OK," he started to get out of the lambo. He hesitated. "Be careful..." he said.

I smiled at him. "Aren't I always?" I leaned over the seat and pulled him into a hug. "I'll stop by later. You shouldn't be up when I do, but if you happen to be I'll tell you all about it." I released the hug.

"See ya then!" Aaron hopped out of the car. As soon as I was sure that he was in the house, I put the urus in reverse and went back home real quick. I grabbed my backpack filled with supplies and got back in my SUV. I immediately started toward San Fran. About halfway there I finally got a text from Martin telling me where to go and how to do it. This was going to be fun.

I parked my Urus about two and a half a miles from the mark . I put my usual disguise on. I pair of heavy sweatpants, running shoes, thick sweatshirt with a hood that stays up, and a mask that kept my face hidden. I think it was one of the ones from Naruto, i don't know I just grabbed it. I sprinted the half mile in a hot minute and found myself standing in a three story building. It was black and absolutely terrifying. Awesome!

I looked around and didn't see any sentries but that didn't mean there weren't cameras. Let's see how can I take this. i could go in, guns a blazing, so to speak, beat the crap out of a lot of people in there and destroy the serum... I think that's the best method but maybe not so brute. *Perhaps I should just go in quietly and knock people out as I go on... without drawing too much attention.* I thought. I checked the directions Martin gave me. The serum was somewhere on the third floor.

The first floor was composed of a large room holding the ceiling up with many large pillars. Beyond that was a large staircase that lead to the second floor where the serum was held. Above that, their bakery which didn't seem to be on.

I wondered how I would get in without causing too much panic and that's when the front door started to open. I sprinted with all my might to that door. I felt my ears pop out and my tail elongate but they were hidden by my choice of clothes. I was very careful about how much power I let slip through. When I got to the door, The poor man barely had enough time to look me in my masked covered eyes before i punched him in the temple, knocking him out.

I pushed past his unconscious body and entered the first floor, charging up my signature zap cannon through my body. One man lunged at me, the second he touched me, however, I let my zap cannon blast him, sending him backward.

He landed at the feet of another. To my surprise this jackass started to smile. I glanced around and there were quite a few men and women standing around me wearing black combat boots, black pants, black dress shirts, and black hats. All uniform...

I looked back at the laughing guy and his eyes turned into slits. The top of his head started to point out and his skin turned into a brownish color... Almost like... Like clay... Oh shit I'm screwed!

I glanced all around and everyone had the same traits as this guy. I was completely surrounded by about half a dozen Baltoy. Baltoy are physic ground type Pokémon. They were notoriously powerful psychics, having enough power to levitate themselves above the ground. I was worried they would find me and this would turn into an all out brawl with the entire building but none sounded the alarm. Good.

"You're done, electric type," the laughing fucked droned. He got up and stamped his foot launching a mud slap at me. I jumped in the air as high as I could. And did a backflip. At the height of my flip when I was upside down, I threw a shadow ball and the laughing man. It hit him square in the chest and sent him tumbling to the ground.

I landed in a crouching position and started my work right away. I dashed at the laugher man and slammed a shadow ball into the side of his face. I round housed the chick standing next to him in the stomach making her double over before hitting her in the back of the head with another shadow ball. She fell to the ground with a thump.

When I turned I had to lean back and dodge a psyshock. I snapped back up and hit the man standing in front of me with a dark pulse. It took a lot of darkness to summon a dark pulse attack and I felt my yellow ringlet on my forehead get bigger as I used my darkness, but it was worth it. The guy standing there got blasted and instantly knocked out.

I stood there for a minute at a stand still with the other two Baltoy in the room. One moved, sprinting toward the stairwell. I moved with her, trying to use shadow sneak. my attack flew through the air and I jumped up and started bouncing around the pillars, defying gravity. My shadow sneak was blocked by her friend. When said friend righted himself, I fell from the pillars and grabbed him by his long black hair, slamming his head into solid concrete.

I used a snarl attack followed by two shadow balls to the last remaining baltoy just before she could get up the stairs. I gave a cursory glance around me to make sure no one was in immediate danger of dying from their injuries. When that was all and done with, I slowly walked up the steps. When I got to the top I noticed a room full computers and people and in the center a giant vat of green stuff that I assumed was the serum.

I put my backpack down and slowly unzipped it. I kept glancing around trying to stay hidden. I slowly pulled out the Big Boss, a black little sphere that held a shit lot of C-4 in it that could be remotely detonated. I grabbed the detonator out of my backpack too and stood up.

"Intruder alert!" Mother fucker! I chucked the Big Boss as far as I could and used confusion to make sure the ball went into the serum. I hit the detonator and hit the deck. The entire building shook with the explosion and resulting shockwave. The building started to go down and I jumped out of the window as fast as I could. As soon as I did that, I heard, "Get the intruder!"

I hit the ground and rolled. The moment I stood up, my shoulder was hit with hard packed mud. I stumbled but kept it moving. I could hear the sounds of pursuit as I sprinted down the street. I could also hear sirens in the distance knowing the human police and fire department were on their way.

I hit a right on the first street I saw. There really wasn't a lot of places to hide but San Francisco is a busy place so there were still a large crowd that I could hide in. I ran through the crowd, weaving in and out as quick as I could. I figured if I continued to frustrate them like this, they'd start slaughtering the humans. They obviously had no remorse for taking a human life so I had to get out of here.

I saw my opportunity and sprinted down an alleyway as quick as I could. The second i did that, the earth moved below my feet causing me to land hard on my ass. I usually only do that when there's ****a lot**** more alcohol in my system. When I hit the ground I shook my head. There was a Baltoy above me, coming down hard with a rapid spin. I rolled hard but even though that attack missed, it still had enough force to knock me against the wall. I felt the rest of the air leave my body as I hit the ground. I moaned as I was lifted up by a baltoy. I sighed and inhaled.

I grunted and kicked as hard I could in this asshole's chest. I flew back and hit the ground. I inhaled again and shot a shadow ball directly at his throat. Probably wouldn't kill him but it'd make him think twice about pursuit. I ran down the alley again as quick as I could. I heard others behind me. As I moved through alleyway to alleyway, I managed to narrowly avoid some powerful psychic moves by sheer luck. When I hit a brick wall, I decided to keep on running. I reached into my pocket and pulled out an X Speed. I swallowed it down and smiled. I felt the effects working on my body as I got closer to the wall. At the last second I leaned back and kicked up the wall. Then I just kept going up the side of the stone building. I got to the tippy top in a matter of seconds.

I crouched down on the roof and took a few breaths. I waited and waited. My left shoulder hurt like a mother fucker. I could barely move it. I knew it was broken and it was bruised all around. I could hear my ribs clicking so I knew that wasn't a good sign either. Other than my back being bruised up, I was still in fighting condition.

Which was good because I could hear the baltoy slowly spinning their way up here. I glanced around to make sure I was still facing the direction of my car. I started to get up and I felt my bones creak with pain. I dead sprinted as fast as I could off the building and propelled myself more than far enough to make it to the next building. As I landed, my left shoulder exploded in pain... again. Un-fucking-believable.

I kept running as fast as I could, quickly hopping off this building and hitting the side of the one next to me. I ran along this ledge and jumped to the next one. I got my speed up and managed to pull off running parallel to the ground against this building.

If I really have to explain this, you're not following along well enough, but we Pokémon tend to have above average physical abilities. Mine is speed. That X Speed I took temporarily augments my abilities to the point where I can defy physics like that. I really wasn't running super fast or anything, just running with enough force that gravity can go fuck off somewhere. God I hope that makes since.

Anyway, I ran as hard as I could and dashed across to the next building. I rolled onto the building and kept it moving. Again a shock went through my body and dust flew everywhere as my left shoulder exploded again.

Could the baltoy sense where my weak point is? Could they see where I already was hurt and just kept aiming for it? Just fucking great, I'm in the middle of San Fran with no fucking allies and not enough medicine on my to heal my arm surrounded by enemies who knew exactly how to make my body hurt even more. And it was a school night. Perfect.

If I was going to get to the car with an actual chance of escape I needed to take a few out, or at least slow them down. As I continued to run, hitched by my hurt shoulder, I waited and waited. When my shoulder exploded I allowed the force to turn me all the way around. At the right moment I fired a snarl attack. It took the form of a large wave of darkness. It slammed into the baltoy chick following me and sent her over the edge of the very tall building we were on.

I turned and continued to run, jumped from building to building. From my left side I saw what looked like a beam of ice coming at me. These bitches can use ice attacks? Son of a-

I ducked as the beam passed over my head giving me a chill. I got up and snarled again. This guy was mid-air so when he was hit, he went down too. Advantage me. I heard someone land behind me. Without even looking, I turned and fired an oral shadow ball (yes a ball flew out of a gay guy's mouth, shut up) and hit another baltoy off the roof.

I stood still and waited. I wanted to see if there were quite a few still after me or if they were bold enough to keep coming at me. I didn't hear or sense anything around me so I kept running.

I was a couple blocks from my car when I decided to pull the keys out. I knew there were still quite a few baltoy in pursuit but once I got to my god like Urus, I would be pretty safe. If Martin had really souped it up to my liking, the thing was reinforced with hard steel and pretty damage resistant. I unlocked the doors and jumped in the drivers seat. I hit the button and revved the engine. I blew it out of there as quick as I could looking for the freeway.

I glanced in my rearview and moaned out loud at what I saw.

Two dark SUVs and a few motorcycles following me as I hopped on the nearly deserted 101 freeway. I punched it as hard as I could, getting my Urus to almost 140 mphs while weaving in and out of the sparse traffic that was still out.

When things started to thin out, one of the motorcycles managed to pull up next to me. He or she opened their palm and a large rock appeared. I squinted my eyes like my name was Prue Halliwell and the poor guy flipped over his handlebars. I glanced in my rearview and saw the bike had collided with another and I knew that were two less problems I'd have to worry about but I couldn't have these assholes follow me back home.

So I slowed up a little and got to my left shoulder lane. I rolled my right window down and waited. Just as suspected, one of the SUVs pulled up next to me. I threw a shadow ball at them (no not orally) and hit the back bit of their front tires and floored it. The SUV was forced into a left hand spin-out smashing it into the other SUV.

I got my Urus up to 200 and high tailed it out of there.

I opened the front door to Aaron's house and locked it behind me. I walked over to the fridge and there waiting for me was my favorite snack: cold pizza. Aaron had taken a couple pieces but left me with most of the pizza which was good because I needed to eat. Fast metabolism.

I grabbed an orange soda out of the fridge (who loves orange soda? Kel loves orange soda! Is it true? I do, I do, I do-oo!) and sat on the couch. I turned the TV on and started to eat.

"How bad are you hurt?" Aaron's voice made me jump out of my skin and nearly choke on my pizza.

"Hey, dude," I coughed. "Still up?"

"I can never really sleep when I know you're on a crazy mission."

I motioned with my good arm to come sit down. "You shouldn't worry about me. I'll always be ok one way or another."

Aaron sat on my left and lifted his hand. His eyes and palm started glow a faint blue. I sighed as my shoulder started to feel better. "Nearly every bone here is close to shattering. If it wasn't for the fact that you have a high defensel, your arm wouldn't even be attached."

"Well then it's a good thing I'm powerful," I said, eating pizza and feeling my arm get better. Aaron tapped my hand and dropped something in my lap. I gratefully used the full restore and kept eating.

When Aaron had done his best to mend my bones, he spoke again. "Why do you do this?"

"Because I have to," I responded. "I signed up for this crazy experience, so I have to deal with being sent on crazy missions. It could be worse."

"But it's already bad because of me."

I turned my head and looked him in the eyes. "No, it's not."

"Why do you go through this for me?"

"Because you're one of my closest friends and someone needs to do this."

Aaron's face went slack and he looked away. I leaned over and pulled him into a hug.

"I'd be doing this whether I was apart of Cipher or not. You're my friend. My closest friend, seconded only by Morty and Irene and I love you just as much as I love them. Don't worry about me, I can take care of myself."

I heard Aaron give a slight sniffle. "Thanks."

I rubbed his back a little before releasing him. "Go to bed. I have to eat."

I woke up in the morning with a blanket around me and the pizza cleaned up. I pulled the covers off of me and hit the showers while Aaron ate his cereal and did some last minute homework. After a nice warm shower, I went into Aaron's room to get my spare set of clothes. I changed my boxers and got a pair of black socks that went to about halfway up my calf. I pulled on a pair of black cargo shorts and black and red converse. To top my outfit, I pulled out my black Doctor Who t-shirt and my "Bad Wolf" beanie, ready to start the day.

**A/N WHOO HOO another chapter down the drain! For those of you who don't know, Cipher was the Team Rocket of the Pokémon Colosseum series. According to the wiki, more like Dim Sun, but I digress. I hope you guys liked it, chapter 3 coming at'cha!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Tien

During break, our little group went out to find Erebus. Lilith texted Oliver telling him they were over by the performing arts theater. When we say them, Lilith's hand was over Erebus' left shoulder and her face was contorted in concentration with Aaron sitting next to him.

"You really need to be more careful, E," I heard her say.

Erebus rolled his shoulder a little and said, "I'll be careful when I die." He glanced up and saw us. "Hey guys," he said in a chipper enough voice.

"Hey," we all said.

"So this whole deal with hanging out with me...?"

"Right," Giovanni said. "We only really have to spend time to see how you work and get an understanding of you."

"Why?" Erebus said, eyebrow raised.

There was a pause. "To see the world through another view I guess."

Erebus' eyes narrowed at Giovanni. "There's something you're not telling me."

Giovanni shrugged. "There is, but it's a surprise."

Erebus glanced over to Aaron. Aaron nodded, Erebus shrugged. "So then I guess we should work out some sort of schedule. Is there like a certain amount of hours you need to rack up?"

"Just a couple times a week."

Erebus nodded. "Well, Rosen and Tien have my number, so just text me when you want to hang out and I'll say yay or nay."

I found it funny how Erebus didn't just give Giovanni his number. I figured there was a reason but I didn't question it. "Is tonight ok?" Giovanni asked.

"Tonight is perfect."

"See you then."

"Later."

Lilith glanced between the two of them. "OK," she said. "You two seriously need to stop with the pissing contest. Either pull'em out and measure or start being decent to one another. Isn't that the point here?"

Erebus shrugged and leaned back, closing his eyes. "Like I said, I'll see you tonight. I had a long night, so forgive me if I'm a little anti-social."

I heard Giovanni mutter something about faggots and Erebus' eyes shot open then narrowed in anger. Lilith put her hand gently on his shoulder and shook her head, Erebus put his hands behind his head and closed his eyes again.

Well tonight should be fun.

Erebus opened the door and smiled at me. "What's up?"

"Nothing much," I said.

Erebus moved away from the door. "Well, come on in, dude. The twins are already here, we're just waiting on Giovanni."

I smiled at him. "Cool," I said as I stepped in. "What are you doing?"

Erebus closed the door behind me and walked to the beat of the music playing loudly on the speaker system. "Just hanging out, you know? Want something to drink? Coke? Sprite? Anything?"

He's being so hospitable. "I'll take a coke." He motioned for me to follow him. He took me into the kitchen and reached into the fridge.

"Here you go," he said, handing me the soda. "Have a seat where you like. I'm cooking gumbo."

I sat next to Rosen at the kitchen table. I glanced over and Lilith was flirting it up with Oliver over on the couch. Aaron was in the kitchen with Erebus trying to help cook and talking. I really couldn't make out what they were saying but they seemed relaxed. This is the most I've seen Erebus smile since reading a play out loud in english a few semesters back. He wasn't staring off into space, his facial expressions were real (though I believe I'm the only one who really notices this), and he was acting like a regular guy.

What also kind of surprised me was Rosen and Morty talking about Modern Warfare 3. They seemed pretty engaged so I didn't interrupt them.

"Oh my god, I love this jam!" Lilith said, getting up. She started shaking her hips and moving around.

"Don't start this," Erebus smiled, turning up the music.

"Please, E, you know I can pop it better than you."

"Bitch, swerve." Erebus laughed. He came out of the kitchen and stood in front of Lilith.

"Let's do this!" Lilith got in the middle of the living room, bent her legs and started to twerk (twerk. verb. to dance in a sexual manner, usually involving shaking on the buttocks.) She moved her hips to the left and dipped them to the right. She shook her ass one cheek at a time. Then she put a hand on the ground and bounced her booty, making little circles. In a provocative manner, she stood all the way up and dropped it like it was hot. She slammed her hands against her chest in a challenge to Erebus.

Erebus lifted his chin defiantly and stepped up. He turned around and twerked it just as well as Lilith. And when I say he twerked, he twerked. He brought it around, bounced it down, and swiveled his hips like one of those hoochie mamas in the videos. When he was done he dropped it like it was hot and stood up.

Morty whooped and started to wolf whistle and Erebus shook his head and smiled.

"You always say 'I'm gay, not a girl' and yet you can do that, *better than a girl*," Morty laughed over the music.

Erebus flipped the bird to Morty. "You know you found my ass sexy," he said, also raising his voice over the music.

"When you move it like a girl, I almost can't help it!"

"Whatever, asshole," Erebus said, still smiling. These two have the weirdest relationship.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door. Erebus looked and rolled his eyes. Morty disappeared. Erebus cut the music off with his phone and flicked his wrist at the door. It flew open and Giovanni walked in. Erebus flicked his wrist once more, not even facing the door, and closed it. The silence Giovanni had created was deafening.

"Alright," our host said out loud. "So, Aaron, you start work on your homework, let me know if you need anything." Aaron nodded, grabbing his backpack and another soda before seating himself at the kitchen's bar. "Lilith, continue flirting with Oliver, but move it to the kitchen table, Tien and Rosen, the Playstation is set up, have fun. Morty stop trying to scare the locals."

From behind me, I hear a sudden, "Aww you're no fun," which of course made me jump about ten feet in the air. I should have seen that coming.

"Morty we'll work on what we need to do and dinner's almost ready," Erebus continued. "If you need anything let me know, otherwise... relax!" He clapped his hands and we moved. I jumped on the couch next to Rosen and we started up Modern Warfare 3. Morty and Erebus sat on the couch opposite us and started setting up what looked like a command center. There were two pretty decent sized stacks of paperwork on the desk, two laptops, and two tablets. These two were legitly doing paperwork.

"What's that for?" I asked. Erebus looked at me, raised an eyebrow, and cocked an ear at me. "What's that for?" I asked louder this time.

"Morty and I do the books for our donut shop and the other parts of our chain," Erebus said, looking a his stack with great sadness.

"We're mostly handling transfers right now, making sure what needs to be done is done, ignoring the complaints, seeing what needs to be fixed, seeing what needs to be delivered where..." Morty listed, his face getting lower and lower as he spoke.

"Thank *god* I did most of this in pen already," Erebus said. "We mostly have to type this shit in now..."

"Still a lot of work."

Erebus shrugged and picked up part of his stack of paper. He set the tablet up on his arm chair. As he began flipping through the pages, he quickly tapped on his tablet. Morty started doing the same. I was watching them out of the corner of my eye while I played Co Op with Rosen for about an hour. We got bored of the pretty quickly and Erebus told us the Black Ops 2 was on his video game stand. While that loaded, I continued to watch them.

"Are you even old enough to be doing the books?" I suddenly asked.

"Nope," Erebus said, popping the 'p'. "but fuck it."

"Butt fuck it?" Morty asked. "Of course you would go with that response!"

Erebus swung his fist and got Morty right in the arm. Morty just laughed his ass off and they continued to work. I would still glance at them every once in awhile between waves of zombies. They worked fast. Both their stacks of paper were almost done and it had only been an hour and a half since the last time I checked. Other than confirming codes with each other and switching papers, they were pretty organized and getting through that quickly.

Rosen and I put the controllers down, feeling bored with just killing zombies when Erebus slapped all his papers off his lap and onto the floor. Morty whooped and did the same. "Last thing, vacation time and scheduling!"

"My favorite part," Morty said, both of them pulling laptops into their laps. The furiously typed and stopped and then typed and stopped. It was actually a pretty interesting topic thing to watch. They would mutter to each other and kept talking about calendars and who was where.

"He's currently in china and not coming back until the fifteenth. We should give him a break when he comes back. At least a short one." I figured they were working off of some cloud system because when Erebus said that, Morty squinted at his laptop.

"Well we can move this guy here..."

"Then what about that day..."

"We can have this girl..."

"But she knows this better-"

"But she can do it faster."

"...ok we can put her and her here, him here... ok that works."

"What about this day?"

Erebus looked at his laptop.

"Wait... that doesn't work..."

"Why?"

"Because I took that day off weeks in advanced... months in fact."

"What? How long?"

"The day after... hold on, Aaron?"

"Yea?" said over by the kitchen counter.

"Go to the store and go get some more root beer, I'm out."

"You're just trying to get rid of me aren't you?"

"Yup," Erebus said, tossing him his car keys.

"How come he can drive your urus?" Lilith complained.

"Shh," Erebus said, dismissively waving a hand at her. "Go and come back," he said to Aaron.

Aaron shrugged and left.

As soon as he was gone, Erebus started talking a mile a minute. "I took this day off on my birthday!" He hissed.

"Right..." Morty said, typing on his laptop.

"i missed my birthday, being in Thailand, not even the GOOD part of Thailand, away from my friends, not even able to celebrate an entire WEEK after the fact. That freaking SUCKED! But I am not missing Aaron's birthday!"

"Relax," Morty said, still typing. "We can fix it, we'll move people around, we'll have you work doubles sometimes."

"But it'll still show me up as available online!" Erebus sighed and ran his hand through his hair,

Morty bit his lip. "We can figure this out. I'll do anything you might have to do."

"No, you need to be there just as much as I do! Fuck I swear if anyone ask me for a favor, I'm saying no!"

"You can't just say no," Lilith said, interrupting. "You have a duty."

"I'm saying no," Erebus said, running his hand through his hair in an agitated manner. "I took this day off almost half a year ago! I am NOT missing Aaron's birthday!"

"You won't have to," Morty said triumphantly. "I got it changed so you're not on as 'available'. That should deter anyone from asking for your help."

"Is it 'unavailable'?" Erebus said, voice sounding on edge.

"No..." Morty said, looking at Erebus like he was expecting him to flip out again.

Erebus just sighed, and rubbed his temple. "Thanks, bro... It's a start I guess."

Morty smiled and went back to his work. Erebus was really dedicated to making it to Aaron's birthday. He took off time because he knew what spending a birthday alone was like. Erebus really has taken a brotherly roll with Aaron. It was almost a fatherly role. How many people would actually spend the time and resources like this just to watch over someone who wasn't their blood and not even their adoptive sibling or whatever. As far as I knew, Erebus was just Aaron's close friend but...

Suddenly Aaron came back in the apartment, holding a 24 pack of Mug rootbeer. "What'd I miss?"

Erebus smiled warmly. "Nothing!" he jumped onto the couch next to me and pulled a new controller on the playstation. "Time to school you in Black Ops!"

We played zombie mode for a couple hours, constantly switching controllers. Even Giovanni got into it. But every time we got him on in the circulation, he would often leave Erebus, Morty, or Aaron to die at the hands of zombies. In contrast, however, the three of them did their best to keep reviving him.

The night was almost over and Erebus announced that it was dinner time. Giovanni excused himself and waited at the door like he was expecting us to follow. The food smelled so good, my stomach growled loud enough for everyone to hear and Erebus took me by the arm. "Eat something, you little fucker."

Lilith and the twins were already filling up their bowls of gumbo so I figured I might as well stay. I never had gumbo before. So that left Giovanni to leave Erebus' home alone. "You can always stay," Erebus said. "There's plenty and you're welcome to some."

Giovanni just pressed his lips together as if just talking about the food would poison him and he'd get raped because that's how evil and gay Erebus was. Giovanni left the apartment without another word.

I'd like to say that we sat around and talked and had a good time but Erebus' cooking was so good, the only sounds that could be heard were our slurps of enjoyment and the soft sounds of Luther Vandross that Erebus had playing over the speakers.

Between moans of pleasure, we commented on Erebus' cooking. It was so good.

"I've never had anything like this," Oliver moaned. "It's so good."

Erebus laughed. "That just makes me think my chow mein wasn't that good!"  
"Oh no," Oliver quickly said. "I meant-"

Erebus held his hand up. "I know what you meant."

"I can't wait to eat here tomorrow," Rosen said between bites.

"Why do I feel like tomorrow is important?" Erebus mused.

Morty and Aaron shrugged but they looked bothered by the thought. That they had something to do tomorrow.

"Regardless," Erebus said, gathering up his dishes. "It's time for y'all to get the fuck out of my apartment!"

"Aw, but I'm so full!" Oliver complained. "And I'm so tired and it's already ten!"

"It is?" Rosen said. "Shit I got to get home, I got an essay due! Let's go, fatass!" Rosen grabbed his twin by the arm and dragged him out the door.

"I didn't get to say goodbye-" was all we heard of the twins.

"I have to go to, my parents are probably freaking out," I said. "More about their car then me being out over a friend's house late."

"Alright, I'll see tomorrow!" Erebus said, walking me to the door.

"Not if I see you first," I said, walking out of the door.

"You know I'll see you before you see me!" Erebus said with a wink before he closed the door. "Always," he said, suddenly next to me.

I jumped about ten feet in the air again.

"It's so funny making you do that," Erebus smirked, going back in his apartment. I just smiled and shook my head, not even bothering to wonder how he did that. I went home and got a shit storm from my parents about being out late but when I told them I was hanging out with Erebus and explained to them about what we've been assigned, they calmed down.

"So he's a gay, black, and an umbreon?" my dad asked. I nodded. "He must get a lot of shit, unfortunately." I nodded again. "I don't know why, he's such a nice person." My dad met Erebus briefly and only twice when Erebus dropped off my cake over the summer and my brother's a couple months later.

"Those cakes he made for you and Ian were the best I've had," my mom said with a warm smile. Speaking of Ian... I walked through the halls of my home and found Ian in his room. He was on his iPhone, headphones in on full blast, sitting on his bed. The little guy looked depressed. He set down his iPhone and rubbed his face like he was fighting back tears. I walked all the way in and cleared his throat. Ian jumped and I finally saw why Erebus and Morty found it so funny sneaking up on me.

"Hey, bro," I said, sitting on the edge of the bed.

"Hey..."

"What you up to?"

"Texting Josh."

Josh was Ian's best friend. They had known each other for as long as I could remember. They even showered and bathed together until they were old enough to be embarrassed by it. Josh lived in the house just behind ours and it was pretty common for them both to be sleeping over each other's house. Josh was pretty much my other little brother. It was hard for us to keep our secret around him but they were close and always laughing and giggling and just being as close as two people can be without getting married. So that brought up a big question: why was Ian upset by texting him?

"What's going on with Josh?"

Ian shook his head. "I wanted to go hang out and see a movie tomorrow or something but he said he couldn't. He really likes this one girl and is trying to get at her but... we haven't been able to..."

"You guys haven't been able to hang out lately?"

Ian nodded.

"Hey, dude, don't worry about it," I said in a confident voice. "It happens, Josh is thinking with his wrong head. You guys'll be hanging out again in no time."

That didn't seem to cheer Ian up at all. But he thanked me nevertheless and pretty much kicked me out of his room. I didn't mind because I was beat anyway.

The next afternoon, we came over Erebus' early since he and Aaron didn't have volleyball. Giovanni, the twins, Abby, and I were sitting around at the kitchen table. Erebus and Lilith were in the kitchen cooking up an early dinner for all of us. Morty was sitting on the couch, flipping through the channels with a new girl, Irene. She was an asian girl with long black hair. Her frame was slender but curvy with tight muscles. From the way she acted, it seemed like Morty and Irene were dating and I had to admit, I was jealous.

"Hey, it's four o'clock," Morty said, grinning from ear to ear. "That means Ellen is on!" Morty switched to NBC and sure enough, Ellen was on the screen going through her opening monologue.

Erebus flipped Morty off and Morty changed the channel. "Did I say change the channel?" Erebus hollored.

"Oh, you make making fun of you too easy sometimes..." Morty switched the channel back and sighed.

"...and now it's time to dance!" Ellen said through the TV. When the music started playing, they all looked up and the TV and smiled as an old hip hop song filled the apartment. Erebus and his friends gathered around in the living area and started dancing. Their dance moves looked straight out of the 90s but they were all doing it, even Aaron got into it. He was clumsy but he was on beat and still able to keep up. Morty and Irene held hands and rocked together. Lilith and Aaron stood full arms length away, holding both hands and rocking back and forth. Aaron had a huge blush across his face but they were all having fun. The best part was when Morty grabbed Erebus and got into a ballroom style hold. The leaned back and forth on beat and just laughed. Those two really do have a weird relationship but I wasn't going to question it. The song ended and they all "aww"-ed in unison and resumed doing what they were doing.

Giovanni had been on his top-of-the-line iPhone 5. He suddenly shouted out, "Guys! We're taking our test for the practice stylers!"

"You guys are just getting your beginner stylers?" Irene asked.

"They go to a different gym," I heard Morty whisper at the same time Giovanni said, "Yea out test is next week!.. Wait what do you mean by 'just now getting?'"

Irene shrugged. "We all have ours." Irene reached into her back pocket and pulled out a green practice styler. Morty reached into his coat pocket and showed his off too. All around us, Erebus' friends pulled out their green stylers, even Aaron!

"How'd you guys get them?" Giovanni asked.

"We go to a different gym," Lilith explained. "We've had ours for a while now, almost a year. We haven't taken the test for the real ones because... we just... I don't know, didn't care enough."

"And we all wanted to take the test together, including Irene," Morty trailed off. "But yea-"

"_SHIT!_" Erebus suddenly exclaimed. "That's what we had to do today!"

"_SHIT!"_ they all exclaimed.

Erebus started to cook faster. The sounds of boiling water and fried food got louder, much louder. "The test is at six thirty, if we leave around five we'll have plenty of time," Erebus muttered mostly to himself.

"I can't believe we forgot about our test," Morty groaned. "That's like the fourth time."

"Fifth," Irene corrected. "But it really doesn't matter."

"Doesn't matter?" Giovanni explained. "Having a styler is more important than owning a gun!"

Irene just looked at him and shrugged. Morty laughed at the expression Giovanni had on his face as a result.

"Dinner's ready!" Erebus called. "Help yourself!" He sat next to me with a plate of pork chops, mashed potatoes, and peas. I got my own plate and my mouth was salivating. Everyone had decided to sit around the table. To my left sat Erebus, followed by Aaron, Irene, Morty, Rosen, Lilith, Oliver, Giovanni, and then Abby who sat on my right.

"What kind of test do you think it'll be?" Morty asked.

"Probably just some combat drills," Lilith guessed, taking a sip of her soda.

"It'll probably be a Charlie Foxtrot since the five of us are taking the test at the same time," Irene added.

"Wait, your gym does a lot of battling?" Giovanni asked.

"Yeah," Morty said quickly. He said it like he was trying to push Giovanni out of the conversation.

"What's a Charlie Foxtrot?" Aaron asked.

"A clusterfuck," Irene said.

"A shit ton of shit happening," Morty added.

"A whirlwind of fuckery," Erebus concurred. "In other words... 'oh hot damn!'"

"It shouldn't be too hard..." Lilith said. "If it's fair." There was a pause and then they all busted into laughter.

"Oh, that's rich!" Erebus said, wiping a tear from his eye. Conversations began around the table. Giovanni was busy talking to Abby about some raging party coming up. Lilith and Rosen were busy flirting it up while Morty and Rosen were leaned close together talking. Irene, Aaron, and Erebus talked about different trips they were planning on taking. The conversations were pretty segregated, it felt like no one could just jump across the table into another conversation without throwing it off of the path. I just sat there for a while slowing Erebus' godly cooking.

"You're in Mr. Todd's third period, right Tien?" Erebus asked me.

I nodded.

"When's the essay due?"

"Next week thursday."

Erebus cocked an ear at me. "What?"

"I said next Thursday."

He nodded. "You finish it yet?"

"Nope, I hate the prompt."

Erebus smiled at me. "I love the prompt. Goodness can be found in everyone no matter what."

I gave him a smile back. We had an unspoken moment of understanding. Erebus glanced around the table then back up at the clock.

"Time to go, guys," he said. "Let's go get changed then we can leave." He looked at me and ran his eyes over Giovanni's friends. "You guys are welcome to join us." We all took our plates into the kitchen and scraped them off and put the dishes in the sink.

Erebus, Morty, and Aaron went into Erebus' room while the girls went into one of the other rooms.

The boys came out first, wearing entirely new clothes. Erebus came out wearing a black under armour shirt and holding a black sweatshirt. He work a thick pair of black and gray camouflage pants that looked like and emo version of the cammies he wore for MCJROTC. The pants were even bloused the same way with the black combat boots. Behind him, Morty and Aaron came out wearing his sweatshirt but pretty much identical. The ladies came out to the guest room wearing the exact same thing except Lilith's boots had three inch heels. Their hair was pulled back into a tight, flawless buns as well.

"Let's go," Erebus said. He glanced at me. "You guys coming?"

"Yeah," I said. Oliver and Rosen twined their yes as well. Everyone glanced at Giovanni and Abby. He nodded and that settled it. We were going to see this new mystical gym that let young Pokémon battle each other freely.

Lilith decided to drive her audi with the twins, Morty and Abby in her car. Aaron drove Morty's Audi r8 with me, Giovanni, and Erebus in the backseat while Irene took shotgun. Morty's audi was his pride and joy and he told Aaron if there was one scratch, he was dead meat. I had no idea where we were going but it was kind of exciting. These guys were wearing real military type clothing for a real challenge. We had been on the road nearly half an hour when I heard Erebus snoring.

"Is he really sleeping right now?" Giovanni asked.

"Yes, I am," he grumbled. "Keep it down, I'm trying to relax while I wait." Irene cranked up the tunes and we listened to songs like Gangnam Style, Pound the Alarm, Shots, and Outta Your Mind and so on as we rode. How Erebus slept through that but woke up the second Giovanni started to talk.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Erebus

The real reason I slept was to see what my dreams had to say. You never really know what will pop out at you in that plane of existence. It's weird but some dreams can be prophetic. No, I'm not Percy freaking Jackson, but I sometimes get dream like that. Good thing too because I was right. When I slept I felt the presence of five people surrounding us. In my dream, five tall shadows were bearing down on me, suffocating me. I woke up with a start, knowing what the dreams meant.

"This is going to be fun," I said outloud. Irene looked at me. "You know what I mean. Just get ready." I sent a text to Morty and Lilith in the other car telling them this might lead to a fight. The scene outside turned into thick Santa Cruz hills. Aaron pulled down a dark, dirt path with Lilith following closely behind. After a while, I suddenly said, "Stop!"

Aaron quickly hit the brakes and waited.

"Come on," I said. "Not you two," I said to Giovanni and Tien. "These are our people, they don't like outsiders." Aaron put the car in park but left the engine running. As I got out, I saw Lilith had done the same and made sure that our five were the only ones who got out. The five of us walked forward, side by side. We all stopped suddenly and waited all for two seconds.

Tien

The five of them stood in a loose formation ahead of our car. Erebus in the middle. He put on his button down sweatshirt. Morty said something and Erebus shot back a response. They bickered back and forth for a moment and then their group burst into laughter.

Aaron's head snapped up and he said something. Erebus turned to the car we were sitting in Aaron reached into his pocket and the car doors locked. Erebus locked eyes with me and mouth 'Don't get out'. He turned to his right (our left) and waited. About two seconds later a figure had appeared out of nowhere.

Around them, four other figures had appeared, surrounding them. Erebus just glanced around and started talking. To the tall and burly man standing in front of him. The man looked like buff Larry the Cableguy. Erebus was interrupted by the guy. He looked angry. The man gestured to his car and Erebus nodded his head and started talking again.

But the man wasn't having it. He kept yelling and he must've said something that set Erebus off. Erebus' eyes narrowed to dangerous slits and he spoke through clenched teeth. he gestured to our car and kept talking. When he was done, Erebus and the man just stood there glaring. And that's when all hell broke loose.

The tall man brought his hand up and backhanded Erebus hard across the face, sending him flying onto the hood of the car I was in. The man shifted and revealed a long horn coming out from his nose and a shorter one. A club like tail was swinging around behind him and his arms had rock like protrusions coming from the elbows. This man was a rhyperion! Big brutish ground and rock type hybrid.

Around Erebus' group, two women and two men shifted into rhydon forms which was simply long grey tails and horned snouts. Rhydons were the pre evolved form of rhyperion and the evolved form of rhyhorn. One tried to grab for Lilith, but she just flipped him over on his ass. When one tried to hit Irene with a hammer arm from behind but she just gracefully ducked and fired an ice beam right back. I didn't see when Morty and Aaron had started their combat but they were already locked in a fierce hand to hand battle.

Erebus was still on the hood with the Rhyperion closing in. The rhyperion quickly wrapped one of his hands around Erebus' throat. One of Erebus' hands were pinned down while the other was trying to pull the hand around his throat away. Meanwhile I was trying the door. Aaron must have locked us in because they were really stuck.

I looked up just in time to see Erebus pry his arm free and slam the rhyperion in the face with a dark pulse. The rhyperion stumbled back and Erebus shifted, springing into action. He went hand to hand like everyone else, no using his powers. He had a style of fighting that reminded me of Prince Zuko. The rhyperion stayed low and used his weight to his advantage. Erebus would jump and land a kick to the rhyperion would just stumbled back and swing at Erebus. Erebus tried going around the side but the rhyperion just sidestepped out of the way. Erebus moved back and slowly got pushed backward towards his friends.

Irene, now had also shifted was doing her best to push a rhydon back. Her arms looked kind of like kimono sleeves, her skin had gone pale, she looked slightly skinnier, her hair looked like it had ice shards in it. I began to wonder what Pokémon she was when I noticed her feet weren't touching the ground. Kimono... skinny... feet not touching the ground... she was a froslass! Froslass where an odd combination of ice and ghost. Many japanese myths depict froslass' as beings who wandered through snow storms to lure people to their doom. It's stuff like that that I find ridiculous. I was sure Irene was a nice girl who didn't lure anyone to their deaths.

And by the looks of it, she wouldn't even win this fight, she wasn't doing so well.

In fact, none of them were. They had all gotten pushed back into a tight circle, back to back. Erebus looked pissed. "Enough!" he yelled loudly. His voice boomed out and everyone paused. He reached into the inside of his button down sweater for his practice styler. He held it out and several dark rings sprang from the ground and send the rhydons and rhyperion sailing a few feet and landed on their ass. "Irene, Morty, now!" Erebus said. He closed his eyes and Irene and Morty stepped towards him... No not towards him... INTO HIM!

Erebus

With Irene and Morty inside of me, I could easily deal with Hank the Tank and his cronies. Hank was the guard for the Blackthorn Gym. He was pissed that we have guest, especially since one of them was a Ranger in training (He has a problem with Rangers). Basically he was being a bully and threatened to beat up my friends. I knew through my dreams that his dumbass would try to pull something like this so I had the others locked in the car.

When Irene stepped inside of me, I felt a cold chill run me and I felt myself lose a little weight. When Morty went inside, I felt almost nothing, I was so used to him. I knew my hair was purple and had icicles.

"Lilith!" I barked. "Pokéassist! Have Aaron charge your assist, trap these guys with your plants." She nodded and pulled out her styler. Aaron did as well and both started to glow. I turned and was ready to let loose. I glared and Hank as he got up. In a sudden flash I was floating in front of him. I kicked him in the chin as hard as I could. Everything moved slower. He barely had moved back when I shot an oral shadow ball at him. I hit him hard enough to where he made a crater in the ground. Still floating, I turned around. One of the male rhydons was trying to rush Aaron while he charged Lilith's assist move.

Let me back up for a second. Pokéassist are abilities that, when used, give the stylers extra power from a fellow Pokémon. They may cause things like an increase in power or a special effect to happen. Technically our practice stylers weren't supposed to have this feature, but Martin pulled some strings. Aaron was busy charging up Lilith's styler. This would make his styler unusable until it naturally recharged but it's a good thing we did it that way. If Lilith had done her Pokéassist without Aaron, her natural powers would be extremely limited until her styler recharged.

The main point of the stylers was to use as a weapon to channel power through and used to attack easier. Most attacks we used were generic orbs of power and forceful attacks. I could only use my styler to create ripples of darkness that could be used offensively or defensively.

Anyway, protecting Lilith. Her features were quite stunning while in her roselia form. He hands were blue and red respectively and looked like rose petals. Her skin took on a slight greenish color but not too noticeable. The rhydon charged at her but I slammed my knee into his side before he had the chance.

"Ready!" Lilith hollered. When the rhydon hit the ground, he was suddenly covered in overgrow. I stood there and waited. Lilith, in a matter of seconds had the rhydons completely covered in overgrow. Her assist only worked for about a minute and thirty seconds. I stood with my arms crossed as I watch Lilith work which was a bad idea.

*Watch out* Morty's voice filled my head. He took brief control of my body and levitated me upward. Below me, Hank the tank barreled through, missing me by miles.

*Thanks* I thought as I floated down. I lifted my styler and pointed. "Irene," i had to say out loud. "Gimme some ice?" My styler suddenly exploded with ice and I aimed it at Hank's back at the same time Lilith hit him in the front with her assist move. hH looked like a beautiful man-cicle to be honest. I floated down and Irene and Morty stepped out of me. I looked Hank in the eyes.

"Going to let us pass now?"

We got back in the cars and began riding the rest of the way to Blackthorn gym.

"What was that all about?" Tien asked.

I opened one of my eyes to look at him. I told him all about Hank's hate for Rangers and to a lesser extend any guest of mine.

"Why?"

"He's an asshole with a very tiny penis," was all I said. I was tired. I exerted a lot of dark power back there when I pushed Hank's gang back and then again when I was utilizing Irene and Morty's ghost powers. I could feel the darkness inside of me growing and I could hear *his* voice even more as we approached Blackthorn Gym. Tonight was going to be a heavy drinking night if I had to exert more darkness like this. I almost wanted to turn back and not deal with this tonight but I decided against it.

We found good parking at the hidden complex. It had a bunch of psychic wards that stopped curious humans from wandering through. All they saw were a thicket of bushes and trees that they can't get close to. What it really was would astound them.

"Is that all?" GIovanni said as he got an eyesight of my gym. "It's nothing but a one story building! It looks like a small walmart!"

"Time Lord technology," I said. All Doctor Who fans refer to the TARDIS and you'll know what I mean.

"What?" Giovanni obviously didn't watch the good Doctor.

"You'll see," I said Getting out of the car. Walking up to the gym door, Irene and Lilith flanked me while Morty and Aaron stood behind us tight together. The others sort of scrambled to keep up with the fast walking pace we had set. When we got to the door, I tapped my styler to it and the doors swung open. We all stepped in and Giovanni's crew gasped. "Time lord technology means 'bigger on the inside than it looks on the outside!' Of course this isn't really a TARDIS but still, our leader, Claire, got our best people to make our gym HUGE on the inside."

We walked as they gaped. I walked to the front desk and completed our registration as well as get guest pass for our, well, guest. I filled out a little paperwork and gave Tien, the twins, Giovanni, and Abby their passes.

"I'll take them to the spectator area," Lilit volunteered. "I'll meet you in the prep room later." I shrugged and walked towards the prep room.

The prep room was a medium sized dojo looking area. We all sat around each other just waiting. That's when Clair walked in. Clair was a dragonite, one of the more powerful ones and the gym leader for Blackthorn. She had a thing but muscular frame. I loved her blue wavy hair that seemed to stick out. She had thin lips that always housed a smile but eyes of an alpha wolf. Not someone you want to fuck with.

"You all ready to go?" she asked.

"Yes ma'am," I said, getting up along with the others. We took our sweatshirts off and put them on the ground.

"Good, follow me." She turned on her six inch heeled boots and lead out of the waiting room. We walked down a long, dark hall that had a light at the end. I was nervous, excited, and worried all at the same time.

Clair lead us into the light and the crowd erupted into cheers. I glanced around and saw that many people had come to watch this. I recognized a few people but not many. The area around us looked like the theater in the Tech Museum except full circle around our battle ground. Our battle ground was about four times bigger than a basketball court which was plenty of room. Clair stopped in the middle of the stage and pulled a microphone out from behind her.

"Ladies and gentleman," her voice echoed. "today we test our best and brightest for their chance to earn their stylers. A great honor, especially at a young age. No doubt they would have already had them if they only remembered their test day." She turned to us, a smile on her lips as always and winked. "Please show your support for the young Aaron Cobble." Aaron stepped forward and beautifully shifted into his riolu form. My heart swelled with pride as he held his normally shy head up high and smiled for our supporters.

"Lilith Duplica!" She stepped up and did a curtsied (shifted in the process) as she smiled. She looked to her right and waved even bigger. I followed her gaze as saw the twins and Tien cheering loudly. Next to them was sat Giovanni who just glared and sulked next to his bimbo girlfriend.

"Erebus Knight!" I smiled slightly as I stepped forward. I hefted myself and did a back flip. When I landed I was all umbreoned up and feeling excited.

"Morty Eusine!" Morty bowed and disappeared. He reappeared standing on my shoulders. The crowd got a huge kick off of that. I'm guessing he was full haunter, hair spiked out and purple, skin slightly darker, mouth jagged, and weird floating hands near his normal ones. I leaned my shoulders to the right and he side flipped off of me.

"Irene Emic!" Irene waved and smiled. She jumped up and twirled midair, shifting into her froslass form and causing little sparkles of ice to form around her.

"These five will be taking their test at the same time. They will fight five other warriors who have earned their styler. All they have to do is either knock them out or knock them out of the ring, but there's a twist." Well, fuck me hard! "The twist is, these for taking the test can only use their hand to hand skills and the powers granted to them by the styler, nothing else. No special moves, powers, or abilities. Their opponents, however, can do whatever they want." Well fuck. That limited me and Irene like hell. I could only create little dark rings with my styler and Irene could protect herself with blue orbing thingies as a defense but as for attacking, she was limited to makes icicles appear out of the ground.

Morty could still disappear and reappear but now, as far as attacking, he was limited to making dark apparitions appear and that took a lot of concentration and didn't do much damage. Aaron was extremely limited, his styler only gave him pretty strong physical attacks, but it would do. Lilith could create... pollen and leaves... don't underestimate the power of plants, people. That shit hurts!

Even though we were limited by our abilities, I felt confident. _I mean, really how bad can these warriors be? _I thought. I could've kicked myself for thinking that. After announcing our challenge, Clair had flown to a huge chair in the middle of the spectator seats. From above, five figures fell from the sky and surrounded us. They were all in shifted form and wielding fine stylers. These things were like regular stylers only with a lot more features and worn on the wrist for easier use.

These challengers were a wild mix. One pidgeot, man, tall with bird like features. He had the rainbow hair and winglike arms of a pidgeot. He looked about eighteen years old. This one didn't worry me. Other than being a hybrid bird and normal type, they weren't anything special.

Another of our challengers was a female drapion. Every inch of her visible skin was covered with alternating dark and light purple stripes. Her hands ended with a two fingered claw, as did her tail. She worried me, because if she was fast, we could all be poisoned and be sitting ducks. We wouldn't die of it, the poison would only make us faint, but it'd be an instant fail of the test. If one of us went down, we all went down.

The next one was crawdaunt. Her skin was red, she had two lobster like claws and a giant yellow star on her forehead. Crawdaunt were combination crab-like water and dark types. Another dark type, this'll make things fun.

Next one was a sceptile. he was tall, about my height and age. He skin was a slight green color, and his hair was wild and a slightly darker shade of green. He chewed a long piece of wood and looked at me with eyes that told me he knew something. Along his arms were two blade like appendages (yes green) and his tail was bushy and needle-like. I guessed that along his back were six yellow (yellow? yes yellow) pods that were used to absorb sunlight for this grass types attack. This guy worried me because sceptile were known for their ninja like moves. He would be fun later on.

I looked at the last guy. It was Hank. Of course it was Hank. He grinned at me and cracked his hammer like fist. This was going to be hell. My group, officially known as Torchwood, drew our practice stylers and squared off.

"Ready...?" Clair announced. "Begin!"


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N Hello followers! All both of you! I'm so glad to have followers for this story. I'm sorry for leaving you guys on kind of a cliffie last time but it's currently 1:45 and I just uploading a bunch of stuff to turnitin for english and you know, what's one more upload? I have a confession, this story actually is written out to up to 16 chapters, I just don't feel like uploading them. And I'm still going back and editing some things around. Also I love torturing people MUHUHUHU!**

**Ok I'm done. Time to find out if Erebus and his friends pass their test.**

**Chapter 5**

The crawdaunt girl was the first to step up. She looked right at me. "Hi," she said. "I'm Michelle and the reason why you fail tonight. The sceptile is James, the pidgeot is Luther, the drapion is Trisha and I believe you already know Hank."

I raised an eyebrow at her. "Nice to defeat you today," I said.

She smiled at me. "Nice word play, but not happening." She opened her mouth and fired a snarl attack. I used my styler to block the snarl with a dark ring. She stepped closer to me, using snarl attack again. I did a large sweep with my styler to block it and got pushed back. From my right, Drapion tried to hit me with a poison sting. Just before the attack could hit, Morty used one of his dark apparitions to block it.

The sounds of fighting exploded around me but I had to focus on this Michelle bitch. She opened one of her claws and attacked with a bubble beam. Don't laugh, bubble beam is condensed orbs of water that felt like a shit load of rocks. I managed to avoid most of them but one still got me in the wrist, almost knocking my styler out of my hand. I charged her and did a push kick towards her chest. She blocked it and I aimed a punch to her chest. She caught it with one of her claws. She raised the other, this one charged with a hammer claw. I quickly snapped my hand out and grabbed her around her wrist. We were at a stalemate.

"What's your deal with my chest, man?" Michelle said with a wink. "Like what you see?"

"Sorry, hun," I said, focusing my energy. "I'm gay!" I rapidly hit her in the gut with my knee three times. She doubled over and released my hands. I was about to kick her when I was suddenly hit with what felt like a boulder to my back. I fell to my knees just as Michelle got up. She introduced her foot to my chin making me fall onto my back.

She stepped on my chest and aimed her open claw at my face. I shook my head to get rid of the stars and thought about the many ways I could stop this. A basic oral shadow ball or a snarl would knock this bitch off me, but alas all I had was my styler. I concentrated and summoned a few dark rings the concentrated on her foot that wasn't on my chest. She rocked back and stumbled.

I kicked up and landed on my feet, round housing her in the chest.

"That hurt my boobs, you jackass!" she roared. She opened up both her claws and hit me with a hyper beam. And when I say hit, I mean HARD. I flew back and landed against Morty. Ignoring the intense pain in my chest, I started to get up when Aaron suddenly landed into my arms.

I picked him up and helped Morty to his feet, coughing the entire way up. Lilith and Irene jumped back and circled up with us, all back to back in a tough fighting stance. Our opponents stood around us and waited.

"What the hell are we going to do?" Irene growled.

"I have no idea," I said. "Pokéassist is useless in this case."

"What about our field moves?" Morty suggested.

I blinked. "Well... we could but how effective would they be? What can we do?"

"Crush," Irene said.

"Crush," Aaron said.

"Cut," Lilith said.

"Psy power," Morty said.

"hmm... I can do cut too..." I said. "The only bad part about this plan is our stylers will be out of commision until we can charge them. They won't naturally charge themselves like with Pokéassist... Ok here's the plan..."

I spoke in a low voice. I could see our challengers straining to hear me. When I was done telling the plan, Morty was the first to move. He disappeared and reappeared in front of Hank. He gave a hard kick to the face. I rushed him too and kicked hard as I could to Hank's gut. Morty lifted his styler and inhaled slowly. As he exhaled, a small purple flame shot out and hit Hank, enveloping him in a dark apparition.

"Hurry up, I don't think I can hold it too long," Morty huffed.

I nodded and moved on to the next part of the plan. Lilith was busy juggling Trisha the drapion and James the sceptile. I jumped into the fray by punching the unsuspecting Trisha in the face. She stumbled back and James caught her.

"I don't know what you guys are planning," she hisses, "but it won't work!" She opened her mouth and shot out several poison darts. I flipped to avoid them all prayed Lilith did the same. The second I landed, Trisha tail snaked out and stabbed at the ground at my feet. I jumped back to avoid it and was slammed by James. I had to get one of them to open up for my plan to work. They had to expose themselves somehow.

I elbowed him in the face and kneed him to the gut and backhanded him as hard as I could away. I turned slightly to the left and stumbled backward to avoid one of Trisha's claws. She and I danced for a while, her attacking me, me ungracefully avoided them. I didn't even want to TOUCH this girl. I couldn't afford to be poisoned at this point.

As I stumbled to get away from this crazy bitches claws, wondering where Lilith was, I tripped over a loose rock. I fell on my back. Trisha loomed over me, her smile evil with intent. She lifted her arm and shrieked, "No styler for you!"

Just before Trisha could unleash her attack, Lilith came in. Trisha, by lifting her arm that high, exposed herself just in time. Lilith came in close and used a field move, another power granted by the styler. It was just a basic hit move but caused a lot of damage. Lilith's move was cut. Her styler glowed a greenish color and sliced at Trisha's exposed side.

Trisha's jaw went slack, her eyes rolled to the back of her head, her body went limp and she fell to the ground. I hoped Lilith didn't cause too much damaged. A move like cut could really hurt someone. I saw blood on Trisha's side but it didn't look heavy. The medicine Chansey would be able to handle it.

Just at Trisha went down, I started to get up, and Lilith started to fall. I would have caught her but James moved too quick. He kneed her in the chest before poor Lilith hit the ground and sent her to her back. In a burst of anger, I instantly used my cut. Right at James' back. A large cut appeared on his back and he too fell down.

I rushed to Lilith's side. She had gotten herself up on her knees and was clutching her arm. "Are you ok?" I asked.

She shook her head. "Poison dart got me."

"Shit!" I hissed.

"Can't hold him much longer!" Morty called.

"Double shit!" I groaned. Both mine and Lilith's stylers were out of commision for the remainder of the fight, unless a live wire or something fell into the arena. "Ok, how long can you fight it?"

"Not long."

"Plenty of time," I said. Lilith smiled at me. "Stay as still as possible. We only have to get rid of three more." I looked over to my right. Irene was tangling with the pidgeot, what was his name? Luther! There we icicles around their part of the battle arena. Irene landed a good jab to Luther's trachea causing him to fall on his face. Rather than use her field move, though, Irene just froze her opponents wing like arms. She lifted him up and threw him out of the ring. "Great job Irene!" We needed either her or Aaron to keep their field move to finish off our plan.

"Aaron, finish off Michelle!" Irene yelled. I turned and was never more proud in my life. He was quickly jabbing and kicking her. He would back off and attack at another angle. It was graceful and beautiful at the same time. Michelle's big claws couldn't move fast enough to anything but block. Then Aaron got his chance.

Michelle bad blocked one of Aaron's punches and pushed it above his head. Aaron, not skipping a beat, pushed kick Michelle in the chest like this was Sparta. It was madness! When Michelle doubled over in pain, Aaron flipped over her and from behind, slammed a crush attack right in her spine. Michelle slammed onto the ground completely knocked out.

I got up and moved as quick as I could. I kicked Hank in the face, breaking him out of Morty's hold but it was all good. The second I landed, Irene froze Hank's feet. He roared with rage and easily broke out. He slammed his mondo fist into the ground and lifted them up. From his hands, he fired several boulders. We dodged them, but just barely. I forgot that rhyperion could fire boulders from the holes in their hands.

"Hey, you big ass hole," I yelled, running backwards until I was close to the edge. "Come get me, bitch!" Hank roared with rage and the horn on his face started to spin. Fucking great! He rushed at me but I stayed still. He got closer, and closer until I had to dive out of the way at the last second.

Hank was barely able to stop himself from going over the edge. I knew he would. He's a ground and rock type. Our little field moves wouldn't do anything separately. Not a cut, crush, or psy could do anything by itself. The second he turned around, Irene appeared and slammed her crush attack into Hank's chest. He grunted and stumbled. He backhanded Irene but I caught her before he could his the ground hard.

Hank looked woosey. That crush attack definitely worked but not enough. "Morty, now!" I screamed. Just as planned, Morty's psybeam move hit Hank. The big brute's eyes rolled up into his eyes but he was still standing. I ran as hard as I could and dropped my shoulder. I slammed into Hank and it felt like I hit a wall, but it was effective. Hank slowly toppled over out of the ring.

"Winners!" Clair declared. "Team Torchwood!"

I turned to my friend and raised my arms. I smiled at them and they cheered. The victory was short lived as I saw Lilith fall over. I ran over to her and put my hands on her. We were suddenly swarmed by chansey. They were normal type Pokémon that were basically healers. The eggs they held in their pouches had special healing properties. While on stage, they tended to us. Lilith had fought off the poison pretty well even though the fight took a lot out of us. She didn't even really faint, she was just tired and taking a rest.

After they finished with us, Clair took our stylers while the chansey took away our opponents. They were ok, as it turned out. We didn't beat them... too bad. When Clair returned, she had our upgrade stylers, now red things. We all stood side by side with our heads held up high. We took our stylers as they were presented to us and we sheathed them. We were finally able to get out of the limelight.

We walked to the front of the gym, where we told the others to meet us. When we got about halfway there, that sceptile, James, came up behind me. "One sec, guys," I said. We stepped away from my friends. "What's up?"

"You're apart of Cipher, right?"

The corners of my mouth twitched. "Maybe."

James grinned at me. "Don't worry, I'm a Cipher ally, leader in fact of one of the groups that Cipher has an... alliance with. Tentative anyway."

I raised an eyebrow. "So?"

James' grin actually got bigger. "So I would like to become YOUR ally."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, if you need anything let me know. I lead a group of people that practice assassin techniques. If you need anything let me know."

"Why would you extend this to me?"

"Because your a good fighter and I respect that."

I nodded. "Why would I need you?"

James laughed. "You can't honestly stand here and tell me that you've never gone on a mission Cipher didn't approve of." My face actually cracked into a smile. "See, there it is! Now wouldn't it be nice to have some back up for those missions?"

"I guess so," I shrugged. "What do I have to do?"

James shrugged. "If we're in deep, maybe some help. Having someone like you for back up is an awesome thing." James held out his hand. "Do we have a deal?"

I looked at it. There was a nagging feeling I had in the deepest part of my mind that told me this was right. Through the years I've learned to trust this feeling. I took James' hand. "Deal."

James nodded at me and walked away. I walked back to my friends.

"What was that all about?" Lilith asked.

I shrugged as I lead them to the lobby. "I'll explain later." When we got to the lobby, my other friends ran over and started clamping us on the back, Rosen even went as far as to give me a giant hug and squeeze me. Except Giovanni and Abby just stayed away from us. We moved the party to the cars and rode back home.

**Ohh is that little voice in Erebus' head worth listening to? When will James pop up next? hmm... Oh well, I feel nice, so here comes Chapter 6!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Aaron decided to spend the night over my place that night. With all the excitement throughout the day and all the darkness I used, I spiked my tea with a little bit of brandy and went to sleep. It helped numb the dark a little bit. I slept of a small angel that night. He was surrounded by darkness but his light still shone.

The scene shifted. I was in a room, a gray room with a few lights shining through. "Use me, Erebus." I heard a voice say. All the shadows suddenly moved. They came close to me and constrained me. This was the darkness swallowing me up. "You know I'm powerful. Use me!"

How could I use something that nearly killed me every time I slept. I used just a little of it to fight with and I had to deal with this. Alcohol helped but not nearly enough. I had school in the morning so I couldn't even hit the bottle hard.

"No more drinking, no more alcohol. Use me."

"NO!" I screamed. I sat up in my bed, drenched in a cold sweat. I wiped my brow with a shaky hand and slowly got out of bed. I walked into the kitchen and found a bottle of water. I gulped it down in a second and got a wine glass and filled it with a nice champagne. I walked through the apartment to check on Aaron. I almost had a heart attack when he wasn't in the guest room.

I walked through the apartment again and went out to the balcony. "How'd I know you'd be out here?" I asked.

Aaron glanced at me. He was leaned over the wooden rail with a face longer than a horses. He shrugged.

I went over to stand next to him, sipping on my champagne. "What's up? Hurry and talk, I only have on pajama bottoms and my nipples are hard enough to cut through rock.

Aaron smirked at my little joke.

"Your nipples aren't much better."

Aaron shook his head.

"Come on, dude. What's wrong?"

Aaron looked down. "There's this dance in Palo Alto tomorrow. I got invited by this one girl who I really like, but it's kind of far..."

"All the way in Palo Alto, huh?"

Aaron nodded. "You can only get in with a parent signed permission slip because it's this under eighteen thing. And Aunt Anne is out of town so she can't sign it."

I really hated this. I hated that no matter what I did, no matter how much I support Aaron, not matter what I can't replace the role of a parent. Or the love. I can't fill the void where only a parent's love would be. The only thing I really was, was a guy one year older that could help him with the little stuff. I wasn't his parent. I may not be able to give the love of a parent, but that wouldn't stop me from trying.

"I'll can forge her signature," I said. "You can go."

Aaron looked at me with his huge hazel eyes. "Really? But Aunt Anne told you not to forge her signature any more."

"And she's supposed to be here, not out of town all the time."

"But Palo Alto is so far. What if I get attacked?"

"I doubt you will, but... come here." I lead him out of the balcony into my room. From under my bed, I pulled out a small box. From inside that I pulled out a small cube. "This is a teleport chip, best I could get. I'm not supposed to have these, but it's default setting is to teleport you here."

"But I thought only psychic, ghost, and dark types could. And even then, they need a rift for long distances. Palo Alto is a long distance."

Let me explain how teleportation works. For short distances, if you had the ability, teleporting was easy, ask Morty. It took a lot of concentration, but it could be done. For farther distances, someone would need a mystically charged and very large stone and those could only send someone to another rift.

"But these chips use a stylers charge to be sent to a location. They're supposed to be for the fine stylers, but whatever. Put this in you styler. If something goes down, grab your friends and concentrate, it'll pop you in right in the living room here. Call me when that happens and wait. But I doubt very seriously if you'll get attacked." I smiled at Aaron.

"Thank you so much!" He said. He threw his arms around me and squeezed me. I hugged him back, a patch in my chest warmed up. I may not be able to give him the love of a parent, but I could give him something close.

**Short chapter! HAHAHA! I will warn you, chapter 7 is pretty long and a few things happen.**

**Also I'm still establishing a story here. I promise in a little while, there will be character growth, people coming together, Giovanni gets put into his place, etc. etc.**

**Hmm... I think I'll just upload the next chapter while I'm up!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Tien

That night, Giovanni didn't schedule anything with Erebus, so we spent the night at the movies. We ate at Red Robin beforehand and had Johnny Rockets afterward. If eating so much is wrong, I don't want to be right.

When I got home, the twins had followed me in. We were going to study for english but we decided to watch a few more movies instead since it was a friday night. We were smiling and yelling and just being loud teenagers, still raving and ranting about the movie. Oliver had challenged me to a wrestling match, while Rosen just sat back to enjoy our banter. My parents are used to this and usually greeted us when we came in yelling and screaming, my mom usually asking us to settle down or else she'd blast us to the other side of town... Again. But there was nothing.

We walked into the kitchen and my parents were sitting at the table with my brother staring at all of us.

"Tien," my mom said, "your brother has something he needs to tell us." She looked nervous. I have no idea what Ian had told them but I hoped everything was ok. The way Dad was looking though it didn't seem like Ian had said anything yet. Mom turned her attention to the twins. "Do you mind leaving?"

"No," Ian croaked. "It's ok they can stay, I just didn't want Gee- I don't know."

Dad slowly nodded. "Ok what is it you wanted to tell us?"

Ian, in a voice quieter than mine, told us what he wanted to tell us. I was in shock at first. I didn't care but I did care he hadn't told me sooner. At least me, I can understand not telling our parents but... Dad instantly let out a breath. He smiled warmly at my brother and patted him on the back saying it took a lot of courage.

Mom actually slapped Ian saying, "You really worry me over _that_?" and then light-heartedly laughed. The twins and I stayed quiet while my parents assured Ian that everything was ok.

"So then... should I...?"

Dad looked concerned. "I have no idea."

"I do," I suddenly said pulling out my phone.

Erebus

I have no idea why Tien had called me over to his house. I had nothing better to do, Aaron was out with his human friends and Morty and Irene were... I have no idea, but they were around. As I pulled onto Tien's street my stomach felt cold and queasy.

I parked next to the twins' Toyota Corolla and walked up to the door. Tien had pulled it open before I even stood all the way on the porch. "Come on in," he said. I wondered what was up, Tien lead me into the kitchen as my heartbeat got faster. The twins were sitting at the counter on some stool away from the table where Tien's mom and dad were sitting at the kitchen table with Ian at their side. Tien slid into a seat next to his brother and I suddenly felt like I was on trial. Instantly regretted grabbing the first jacket I had which was a black leather one with spikes coming out of the shoulders. I was also wearing black jeans and black converse. I looked positively, well, evil. Without thinking I wiped my hands on my jeans and flexed my fingers. Tien must've sensed my emotions.

"Have a seat," he said warmly, gesturing to the one empty seat directly across from his little brother.

I sat down and scooted closer, folding my hands on the table to keep from fidgeting. _It's ok_ I thought. _You're not on trial, this isn't on interrogation, it's not a trap_. _You are in CONTROL_. "So what's up?" I asked, briefly wondering where Giovanni was.

"Ian has something to say," Tien said quietly.

I looked at the little guy. He looked just like his brother, except with a tan. I could tell he took after his mom more than his dad. Other than that, Ian looked like a shorter, slightly skinnier Tien. I nodded my head at him. "What's up?"

Ian swallowed slightly and looked away. He took a deep breath and sighed. Goddamn the suspense was killing me! He finally spoke. Good thing I'm used to Tien because I had to strain to hear the little guy say, "I think I'm gay." I mean, seriously does anyone in the Dae family know how to speak out loud? For real, they-... wait...

"What?" I asked. "I mean, you think?"

He nodded slowly.

Crap. So it was obvious they called me here to help somehow. "What makes you think that?" I had to know what I was helping with.

"Well, I've had a crush on my friend for a while." _Been there, done that_ I thought. "And I've been turned on-" he glanced to his parents. This must be torture doing this with his parents right there "-by a few guys in movies."

"Like?"

"Liam Hemsworth..."

"Good taste," I said smiling. He blushed and smiled at me sheepishly. "So how do you feel about girls?"

Ian shrugged. "They're cute but..."

"Not for you?" he nodded. "Well... I guess you're gay!" I smiled at him. "There's nothing wrong with it, I am."

"I know, that's why Tien called you."

I nodded. "Anything else?"

Ian shrugged.  
I smiled. "Well if you need to talk, lemme know. There is some stuff I'll tell you later that can be... embarrassing."

Oliver laughed. "What can be so embarrassing?" he asked in a voice filled with fake wonder. Tien put his hand over his mouth and coughed to mask his amusement. Even his dad held back a snicker. Ian blushed again.

"So, Erebus," Mr. Dae began, thankfully changing the subject, "you're an umbreon?"

I smiled at him politely (good thing I meant it too, the freaking espeons could read emotion), "Yes I am."

"And I heard you have some pretty radical powers."

"Yea, I can run a zap cannon throughout my body and use electric charges to attack rather than fire a full zap cannon. I can disguise myself in the shadows, I can run extremely fast, and a couple others."

"What's that trick that you and Morty did?" Tien asked.

Ok feeling a little antsy with all eyes on me but I was glad. Attention was away from Ian and I could tell he was a little uncomfortable and embarrassed. "He and Irene, the froslass, can phase into my body and boost my powers as well as channel their powers through me."

"Sounds painful," Rosen mused.

"Not really, I can't feel them in there and they don't feel anything."

"How do you know for sure?"

"Morty has a bad habit of sneaking in and staying... then falling asleep and phasing back out at inappropriate moments."

"Are there any ill effects from it?" Mr. Dae asked.

I shrugged. "If they've been in too long, it tends to... over charge me I guess. Makes me feel sick and a little sweaty," I said as I wiped the palm of my hand on my jeans again. _Oh no_. As soon as I said that my entire body shivered. Morty and Irene both stepped out of me, literally.

"Someone say my name?" Morty said, rubbing sleep out of his eyes.

Irene stretched and yawned. "Are we interrupting something again?"

"Guys," I said. Morty looked at me then looked around.

Then this fool smiled. "I really need to stop falling asleep inside of you."

I rolled my eyes. "You're disgusting."

He just smiled and laughed. "What's going on?"

I glanced over to Ian. My friends had sort of crashed this little get together. To my surprise he spoke. "I was just asking Erebus some questions. He-he's helping me with-"

"I understand," Morty said holding up a hand. I have to give him credit, as much of a goof ball as he is, he is really understanding and far more intelligent than people give him credit for. Morty pulled Irene with him to sit on one of the bar stools next to the twins. "Continue, please. Ignore us."

I turned to Ian. "Do you have any questions?"

"Do you recommend coming out to, like, everyone?" he asked.

I shrugged. "Depends. I did just because. I mean, my friends are really crazy people. And they're complete jerks who can't go half hour without poking fun at me."

"Yea we are!" Morty laughed. "And I can't help but make fun of you! You can twerk better than chick." He laughed.

I dismissively waved him off then said, "But there was a time Morty kicked some serious butt for me."

"What happened?" Ian asked in wonder.

I glanced over my shoulder and smiled at Morty. He was grinning like the loveable fool he was. "It happened around... seventh grade? Anyway, this kid was bullying me, making jokes and stuff-"

"Wait, someone actually bullied you?" Tien asked. "You're freaking huge!"

"I wasn't always," I smirked. "This guy wouldn't let up. Then he cocked his fist back and I flinched. I closed my eyes expecting to get pounded when I heard the guy grunt and moan. I open my eyes and I see Morty standing over the poor jackass. The bully had Morty's foot on his throat and Morty was just standing there like he was bored out of his mind. One of the bullies friends, this big brute who looked like Shrek tried to attack Morty from behind. Without even looking, Morty managed to block the punch, flip him over, and slam him right on top of his friend. Then like a badass he says-"

"Anyone else fuck with my friend, you'll end up like these two!" Morty said.

"Then this fool puts his arm around me, kisses me on the cheek, shouts he still like girls, and we walk away."

Everyone was shocked into silence.

"True story," Morty said and that made everyone burst into laughter.

"So to answer your question, if you have good friends around you who honestly care for you and protect you, I recommend it."

"I'll kick anyone's ass who messes with you, bro!" Tien said.

"Same here!" The twins twined.

"I'll be there for you too," I said.

"And me!" Morty hollored.

"If I'm around, ditto!" Irene said.

Ian smiled and looked at all of us like he was super happy. He had a bunch of people backing him up, even a couple he didn't exactly know. He's one of the lucky ones...

"But do what you want," I continued. "So long as you're still true to yourself, it's none of anyone's business who you like."

"Thanks, guys," he said.

"You'll always have our support, sweetheart," Mrs. Dae said, kissing him on the cheek. Ian pushed her away in embarrassment like any teenaged boy, but he was smiling nevertheless. I was happy for the kid. His parents accepted him.

Suddenly my stomach growled. Mrs. Dae looked at me with concern only a mother could give. A look I never got.

"Did you eat, Erebus?" she asked.

"No, not yet," I said hesitantly. I didn't want her to start doing the mom thing on me.

"Mom, Erebus is such a good chef!" Tien said. "We should have him cook!"

"Oh no, Tien, he's our guest..."

"No, no, I don't mind." I prefer my own cooking anyway.

"Yea, go cook something, E!" Morty said. "You belong in the kitchen."

I playfully glared at him and shook my head. I was about to shoot back my own response, but Tien butted in.

"Here, let me show you what we have so you can whip something up," Tien said, grabbing me by the arm and leading me around the corner to another part of the kitchen. When we were out of sight, Tien whispered in my ear. "Thanks."

I raised an eyebrow. "For?" I started looking through his kitchen and saw quite a few things I could use but couldn't decide.

"For helping my brother."

I grinned. "No problem, dude. My pleasure really."

"Hopefully it won't turn too much of your pleasure," he said winking at me.

I rolled my eyes. "It won't"

Tien crossed his arms and glared at me. "So what? My brother not good enough for you?"

I laughed at him and his glare broke into a smile. "He's too young."

"I don't know," he said in a mischievous tone. "The rule of creepiness is half your age plus seven. You're 17 right? half your age is about eight. Add seven to that and you have fifteen. My brother just turned sixteen, you should know, I asked you to make the cake." Tien grinned at me triumphantly as I looked through his cabinets for ingredients to cook with.

"You know that doesn't work all the time. Like what about a six year old. Half of six is three, add seven to that and you have ten. So the youngest person a six year old can date is a ten year old? But then that doesn't work because five plus seven equals twelve...!"

Tien sighed in annoyance. "The point is you can date him if you wanted."

"So do you want me to go out with him or not?"

Tien shook his head. "Nah, you don't have to if you don't want to, but if he happens to like you, can you let him down easy?"

"What makes you think I'm *not* attracted to your brother?" I asked, crossing my arms and playfully glaring at Tien.

Tien shook his head and smiled. "OK then let me put it to you like this." He got real close and stood on his tippy toes so he could look me in the eye (sort of). "If you break my brothers heart or even think about having sex with him, I will end you."

At this point I could have laughed at him but he was serious. He was just looking after his brother and I seriously wasn't attracted to him in anyway. "Alright then, but I'm still going to talk to him about a few things."

"What's so important that you can't say in front of everyone?"

"If someone tries to pop his brown cherry the wrong way, it'll be extremely painful and lead to an embarrassing trip to the hospital." I looked Tien directly in the eyes with a completely straight face. Tien just looked at me with his mouth slightly open.

"I see your point."

I bounced my eyebrows at him and grinned a little.

"Hey!" Morty hollered. "Unless Tien is coming out too, what's the hold up, E?"

"Dude!" I barked. I walked into the dining room in just enough time to see Morty roll his eyes.

"He knows I'm kidding..." he said. he looked at Ian. "You know I'm just having fun, right?"

Ian smiled sheepishly and nodded.

"Now what's the hold up?"

"I need to go pick up a couple things from the store to make leftover soup surprise!"

Morty's eyes went as big as dinner plates. "I love leftover soup surprise!"

"What's in it?" Oliver asked.

"It's a surprise!" Everyone there with half a brain said. So everyone except Oliver.

"No need to go by yourself," Tien suddenly said. He looked at me and subtly winked. "Ian you mind?" It suddenly dawned on me what Tien was doing. "I mean, I got the twins here and..."

Morty was about to open his mouth to talk. I looked him in the eyes and quickly thought at him the plan. Morty just shut his mouth (I know, shocking!) and continued to sit. Ian shrugged and lead me out of the house.

I unlocked the car door and got in. Ian jumped (literally, he's that short) into the passenger seat. I started the engine and immediately shut the radio off. If I didn't I wouldn't be able to hear this fucker talk.

"So," I began pulling off, "there are a bunch of things that's really embarrassing when it comes to being gay..."

"Like the sex talk?" Ian asked.

I nodded. I decided to take the side streets just in case. "So I guess..." Oh sweet jesus. If you think talking to your parents about sex is bad, try explaining gay sex to an impressionable young guy you only kind of sort of know. "What are some questions that you have?"

"How does it work?"

"Right in the anus. Right up the butt." There was a pause and Ian started snickering. "Were you expecting a different answer? It's not like when you admit you're gay, you grow a mangina next to your lil' wonton."

"No," he snickered, "I meant... the whole... process..."

Yea, this was going to be horrible. I glanced up in my rearview and saw a familiar pair of headlights. They were shaped weird and tinted slightly blue. I began to wonder how long that car was there but then I suddenly remember the whole gay sex talk. "Well... are you a top or bottom? Or have you even gotten that far?" I asked as smoothly as possible.

"Well... kind of- I'm not sure..."

"I guess I'll just tell you about both. You'll figure out which one you like. Foreplay is important because you can stretch out-" if you're giggling like hell right now, leave "-the anus. It helps a lot because... of the pain."

I glanced at Ian and his eyes had bugged out. "I thought sex was supposed to feel good!"

"It does!" I quickly said. "There's this magical part of the male body called the prostate. It's a bundle of muscle that's pretty sensitive and feels good when it's hit. Makes taking pretty worth it, but it's also dangerous. If you're not careful... well I'm not sure what will exactly happen but... if it's not done right, it'll go south quickly."

"Have you... taken?"

Hmm... so he knew terms. "If you tell Morty this you won't have to worry about sex because I'm going to kill you." I glanced over at him and he nodded. I looked in the rearview mirror as I weaved through the streets and saw the same blue headlights... odd. "Yes, I've taken, yea it hurt, but it felt... good after a while then amazing after... well..."

"So how do I stretch?"

"Oh, sweet baby Jesus," I sighed. I'm not going to write what I actually said because it was graphic, disgusting, and half of you would start giggling uncontrollably so yea.

When I got to a stoplight, I looked at the little guy. He was staring at me with a light blush spread across his tan face. The blue light illuminated my car enough that I could see the gears working in his eyes.

"Advice: if you're a bottom, don't let a black guy be your first time."

In the blue light, I saw Ian break into a big fit of laughs. Honestly he was laughing his little asian ass off and looked like he felt comfortable- did I just say blue lights? I glanced in my rearview and saw the same pair of headlights as before. I started to really wonder if this guy was tailing us. We had been on the road for a while, weaving through the back streets no less, and this guy was still behind us?

Ian tapped me on the arm. I raised my eyebrow at him.

"Do you think I'll get with a guy?"

"It shouldn't be about getting with a guy," I said, pulling off. "It should be about loving someone... but yea you will no problem, believe me."

"What do you mean?"

"You're a little asian twink. You're about seventy-eight point eight percent of the gay community's sexual fetishes. You'll do fine." Ian laughed at this. "But that's why you need to be careful. Gay guys are still guys. They'll say what they need to say you to get up your pooper shooter and then leave you... Just be careful, alright? If you need anything, let me know."

"Is there any good places to meet, like, gay guys my age?"

"Plenty of them..." I knew I would regret this, but... "There's also this website my friend created. It painstakingly makes sure that every person on it is under the age of eighteen. I could... sign you up. But before you do ANYTHING you have to go through me."

"What kind of website is it?"

I chewed my bottom lip. "I guess it's like a facebook for gay teens. A lot of people use it to talk, chat, have fun, exchange stories, support each other, good stuff like that."

"And the other people?"

"Sex," I said simply. "And a lot of it." I parked the car outside of a farmer's market. I had made sure there were no other free parking spots around me and the blue headlights left. I tried to look at who was driving it but it sped by too quick. I got out of the car and Ian followed closely behind. I walked through the little farmer's market and got a few types of vegetables, the entire time answering question Ian had. They were pretty standard and I was able to answer them without thinking too much or being as embarrassing as the last one.

In all honesty, I was looking around seeing if there was anyone following me. I glanced around the aisle while grabbing what i need for leftover soup surprise. I checked out my items while Ian's questions started getting personal.

"How many times have you had sex?"

"Uh..." Time to be honest. "Three times. Twice tops, once bottom."

"Three different people?"

"Yea... but we had dated a long time before it got to that point." I gave him a meaningful look and hope he got the message.

We got back to the car, I didn't notice anyone around us. I put the new ingredients in the back of my Urus, got in, and pulled out as quick as possible and drove around. Just when I thought I was being paranoid, my freaking car illuminated the color blue. Same freaking headlights. "I have to go to Hot Topic real quick, mind tagging along?"

"No, I wanted to check out some of their CDs anyway."

"Cool." I gunned it pretty hard to the nearest hot topic. It took about five minutes and we had no problem weaving through traffic and, unsurprisingly, the car with the blue head lights was there the entire time. I got to the mall and looked at the electronic board that told us how many parking spaces were available. I went up to the very tip top where it was full. I parked between two big cars and saw the blue headlighted car drive off somewhere. "Come on," I told Ian.

Now we could've gone the predicted way. The parking structure was one floor higher than the mall so we could go down a level like a normal human or...

I grabbed Ian by the hand and pulled him onto my back in a piggyback fashion.

"What's going-"

"Shut Up and hang on!" I ran as fast as I could, which was pretty freaking fast. I leaped onto the guardrail and sprang to the roof of the mall. We flew through the air and time seemed to slow down. I always loved doing this. On my last mission I couldn't properly enjoy springing from building but now I had the chance, even if it was just one. I spread my feet out ready for the landing. I felt Ian's arms tighten around my neck slightly and I held onto his thighs. I glanced at his face and his was lit up with wonder and excitement but fear as well.

Time slowly sped back up as the mall's roof got closer. I positioned my feet and when my feet hit the ground, I bent low and ran hard forward, this time even faster. When I came to the edge, I slowed. I jumped up and turned mid air. I landed on the catwalk at a complete stop. All the momentum sent Ian close to my body. I let him stay while his internal organs caught up with his body. "You good?" I asked. He nodded and I let him drop.

He started to sway and I grabbed him around his shoulders and led him through the mall.

"I thought you said you were good."

"I thought I was."

I smiled as I led him down the escalator and into Hot Topic. I looked around and found what I was looking for. An Adventure Time T-shirt. Irene wanted one and nows a good a time as any to get it. I left Ian to go grab it off of the rack. The real reason I came was to try to lose the blue headlight guy. Or find who it was. I probably should have lead the guy back to Morty and Tien's help and dealt with it then but... Too many variables.

I didn't see Ian around so I walked through the store. I found him in the back with the CDs looking at dubstep. "See anything you like?" I asked.

"Yea, but... I can't afford it. Not enough allowance. And my parents would be mad if I did. They hate rap and dubstep."

"That only makes you want it more!" I sing songed.

"Yea..."

I smiled and grabbed the CD from his hands. It was Deadmau5's album *Album Title Goes Here* . I saw Skrillex's *Bangarang EP*. I grabbed it and walked to the checkout. I smiled at the kind lady and handed her the money and my Hot Topic card.

"Can you put it in two different bags?" I asked. I took the bag with the shirt and handed Ian his CDs.

"For me?"

I shrugged. "I know what it's like for parents not to approve. Just remember: I didn't buy you anything."

Ian face lit up and I led him out of the store, the mall, and through a back alley leading back to the parking structure. I opened my ears and sensed around. Without anyone around, whoever was following me would make their move now. And they sure did. I felt someone teleport in behind us. Now only Psychic, ghost, and darks could do this naturally, and it felt like someone was shimmering. That's a dark type of teleportation. I wondered who this was.

"Get ready to run..." I muttered to Ian. Before he could ask what I spun around and my fist glowed. I slammed them together to create a powerful dark pulse. Whoever had been following us was knocked off their feet. Ian stood still. I stepped in front of him. I was an Eevee once too, this thing is scary. I let my traits come out and powered up, careful not to power up too much. I stood in a defensive manner, ready for the worst. The wind around us picked up and I braced myself. Hundreds of pinpricks hit my skin and cut me up pretty bad. I was lucky my leather jacket stopped most of the razors. I'm guessing I got hit with a razor wind.

I glanced behind me and saw Ian was fine. Stiff and petrified but fine. It turned back to my enemy, whomever it was and waited. A purple flame flew at me and I whipped out my styler and used a dark ring to blocked it. The attack exploded in my face, causing a lot of smoke. Through the smoke, I saw a figure, holding a styler, strike out at me. I charged a zap cannon through my styler making a sort of lightsaber. I blocked the attack and held my ground.

"Dude, what the hell?" My attacker said. Wait... I recognized that voice.

"Adrian?"

"Yea it's Adrian you idiot!" When the smoke cleared, my friend was standing in front of my. We both withdrew out stylers and looked each other up and down. Adrian was a tan asian dude, stocky and well built. His hair was cut in a military manner. He had a black horn sticking out of the side of his head, showing his absol-ness. Absol were mysterious dark type Pokémon that seemed to show up to warn of an impending disaster. He was dressed in a leather jacket similar to mine but without the spikes. "What the hell?"

"I'm sorry but you snuck up on me!" I hollered. "You should know not to do that! I'm paranoid!"

Adrian looked like he was about to say something but then shrugged. "I just wanted to freak you out. Haven't seen you since Thailand."

I rolled my eyes. "Been a while indeed."

"Look... I just wanted to sneak up on you and say hi. You kind of ruined it."

I smiled. "I'm sorry."

"Yea whatever." He shook his head and turned away, his form shimmering and disappearing in the process.

I shook my head and wrapped my arm around Ian. "Let's get you back home."

Ian

Wow Erebus was fast. I was still feeling the effects of building when I lead him back into my house. We heard laughing and followed it into the living room where everyone was huddled and the guy named Morty smiled at Erebus.

"Really, bro?" he laughed. "Did you have to beat up Adrian?"

I looked at Erebus and he smiled. "He snuck up on me!"

"You jumpy little S.O.B..." Morty shook his head.

Erebus rolled his eyes. "I'm going to cook the leftover soup surprise." He walked back into the kitchen and I followed. Everyone followed us in as Erebus started flicking around the kitchen, starting to cook. He had the soup pot out and started adding things to it. He stirred and added let things simmer. It was a graceful thing to watch. Then he had to wait.

He pulled out his phone and hit play.

"You always got to have music don't you?" Irene asked.

"Yup!" Erebus said.

"Play something we can sing to!" Irene said excitedly.

"You sing, Erebus?" Dad asked.

Erebus grinned and I'm sure if he skin wasn't the shade of a Reese's peanut butter cup, he would be blushing. "Yea, a little."

"Let's hear it!" Oliver whooped. Irene skipped over and snatch Erebus' phone from his hand. From her pocket she pulled out one of those mini speakers and hooked it to Erebus' phone.

The speaker started to play and Erebus smiled. Irene gestured for Erebus to start out first. His voice sounded amazing. It was low and resonated deep in my ears.

_You shout it out,_

_But I can't hear a word you say_

_I'm talking loud not saying much_

_I'm criticized but all your bullets ricochet_

_You shoot me down, but I get up_

Irene joined in and harmonized with Erebus. Her high bell like tones mixed with Erebus' deepness perfectly.

_I'm bulletproof, nothing to lose_

_Fire away, fire away_

_Ricochet, you take your aim_

_Fire away, fire away_

_You shoot me down but I won't fall_

_I am titanium_

_You shoot me down but I won't fall_

_I am titanium_

Then out of nowhere Erebus started to dance. He was top rocking! He smiled at laughed and just enjoyed himself. He was so much more loose than I thought he would be. He's so much more chill than Giovanni had said behind this guy's back.

Erebus stopped dancing and began to sing again, this time even louder.

_Cut me down_

_But it's you who'll have further to fall_

_Ghost town and haunted love_

Both Irene and Morty started to sing along. Morty's voice reminded me of the lead singer of Drowning Pool with a lot less edge and grittiness. The three of them together harmonized perfectly.

_Raise your voice, sticks and stones may break my bones_

_I'm talking loud not saying much_

The three of them put their arms around each other. Irene in the middle. Erebus reached his hand out and pulled me in close. The twins wrapped their arms around each other and linked up with Morty. My brother wrapped his arms around me. Together we all sang the next part. We didn't sound as good, but it was still a memory worth having.

_I'm bulletproof, nothing to lose_

_Fire away, fire away_

_Ricochet, you take your aim_

_Fire away, fire away_

_You shoot me down but I won't fall_

_I am titanium_

_You shoot me down but I won't fall_

_I am titanium_

_I am titanium_

_I am titanium_

_Stone-hard, machine gun_

_Fired at the ones who run_

_Stone-hard as bulletproof glass_

_You shoot me down but I won't fall_

_I am titanium_

_You shoot me down but I won't fall_

_I am titanium_

_You shoot me down but I won't fall_

_I am titanium_

_You shoot me down but I won't fall_

_I am titanium_

_I am titanium _

After we got done singing, Erebus checked the food. "Almost ready."

"So why don't you guys tell us more about yourselves," my mom asked sweetly.

Morty spoke first. "There my name is Morty Eusine. I'm a ghost type, a haunter. I used to live in San Diego with Erebus before we moved here, but I go to AHHS unlike him. We have been best friends since second grade, before he became all big and black and umbreon." He shoved Erebus in the shoulder and smiled.

"I'm Irene! I go to AHHS with Morty to keep him in line. I met these two knuckleheads in middle school when they moved here."

"What middle school did you guys go to?" Tien asked. "I don't remember you at MMS."

"We went to SMS before we got here," Irene asked. "I met Morty first and he introduced me to Erebus. We've been friends ever since."

"What was San Diego like?" I asked

"Hot!" Erebus said.

"Extremely so…" Morty agreed with a laugh.

"Soup's on!" Erebus announced. Mom got a bunch of bowls down and Erebus served them up. We sat around the table, Erebus right next to me. We ended up asking more questions.

"When did you come out?"

Erebus

"I came out around seventh grade," I said.

"How did you know?" Ian asked.

"It was obvious," I answered, eating some of my soup.

"What do you mean?"

"I think making out with a guy kind of seals the deal." Everyone giggled at my little out joke. "I was glad when I came out, it's California, only a handful of jerks care. Of course coming out of the closet after you've been an umbreon for a couple years can be… difficult but when you have a friend like Morty, it doesn't matter. Even if he is a jackass." I glanced at Mrs. Dae. "Sorry for the language."

"Oh, please," she said, waving me off. "I have a house full of teenagers at all times between these two. I'm used to a little swearing here and there." I smiled at her. "So how did your parents respond to you coming out."

Within the next few seconds a lot happened. About a billion thoughts of my mom flew through my head in about a second. In another second, all those thoughts were being sent to Morty. I tried my best to use our telepathy without looking into his eyes. In the next second, Morty grabbed my hand under the table and gave it a squeeze.

"Didn't really matter," he said simply for me. "No one really cared, in fact, my family took him out to dinner when he finally decided to tell anyone. But I'm proud to say that I'm the first person he told!"

He gave my hand another squeeze. I swallowed hard and tried to jump in seamlessly. "Oh please, like I had a choice but to tell you! You walked in on me making out with Gary..."

"And you were so...," he said, making a baby face at me. With his free hand, Morty made a fake tear trail down the side of his face.

"Shut up," I rolled my eyes.

"I just can't imagine you crying," Rosen laughed.

"Do you even have tear ducts?" Oliver agreed. "Or emotions…? Or clothes with pastel?"

"I'm surprised you didn't cause a flash flood with your tears, Erebus!" Tien added.

I rolled my eyes. "I'm not all that emo! Yes I did cried when I was younger, yes I have tear ducts, emotions, and a handful of clothes with color, and, guys, just call me E, it's easier. All my friends call me E because Erebus is such a mouthful at times."

"Ok… E," Tien said with a smile.

"E," Ian said with a smile. "Sounds badass. Like the Doctor!"

"You watch Doctor Who?" I asked him.

"Oh great!" Morty yelled. "Another whovian!"

I rolled my eyes. I have got to stop doing that, my eyes are going to fall out of my sockets.

"Yea, I've seen every season after Doctor 9. I'm on the eleventh Doctor now."

"Matt Smith… not my favorite."

"Have you seen them all?"

"Almost, I'm still watching the classic episode, the pre-time war ones. I'm such a hardcore nerd of this show."

I heard Morty mutter "fucking torchwood" and I kicked him in the shin.

"Here," I pulled out my phone and took it off vibrate. I gave Ian my number and when he texted me, my phone sounded just like the sonic screwdriver that the Doctor used. "Like it?"

Ian nodded.

"I'll send you the ringtone." I took a couple more bites of my soup. "Ever have someone ask you who you are and you just say-"

"I'm the Doctor!" Ian interrupted in a fake british accent.

I grinned at him. "Doctor Who?" was my response. "I've done that so many times!"

"So have I. But I've never gotten a fan."

"Oh, it's the best to get a fan! I remember this one time when I was actually in London, this guy asked me who I was. I responded with 'the Doctor' and he said, 'you can't be the Doctor, I am!'"

"What happened next?" Ian asked, real enjoyment in his eyes.

I swallowed a spoonful of soup and continued with the story. "Well, we had the same back and forth as the Doctor when he was cloned."

"Which time?"

"Uh... David Tennant when he got a doppelganger."

"When Donna became 'Doctor Donna' right after?"

"No, the other time."

"Oh, right! The one with the goo! ...That was a freaky episode."

I nodded darkly. "Ever go to a Doctor viewing party?" He shook his head. "Oh you're missing out! The best part is, everyone dresses up! I saw this guy dressed up kind of like a dalek. He had pants on that looked like the lower body of the dalek. This hand looked like the laser, the hand looked like the suction cup thingy, he a chest plate on, and a hat that had the dalek eyestalk. He looked freaking clean!"

"Did he meet a dude dressed as a cyberman?"

My grin only grew. "Yea! Remember the episode where the daleks and cybermen fought?" Ian nodded. "Those two did the whole dialogue where the cybermen and daleks met."

"I love that scene! The daleks were badass! They burned the cybermen so bad!"

"I feel like when you say 'you are better in one aspect... you are better at dying!'" Ian laughed at my best dalek impression, "you just win the 's just the best insult ever."

"Totally!" I saw Ian glance around then blush.

I looked around too and everyone seemed to be looking at us nerding out. I was embarrassed too. Then I wondered if everyone expected us to get together. "Hey! He's gay, he's gay, they like the same TV show, they should fuck!" God... I'm sure they meant well though...

I glanced at Morty and he had a wide grin on his face.

"What's that look for?"

*You want to fuck him now, don't you?* is what he thought at me, but out loud he said, "Freaking whovians."

*I'm going to kill you!* I thought at him

"I know," Tien called, responding to Morty's comment about whovians. "He always uses Netflix and the DVR for that stupid show!"

"Well then, you should put your stuff on the DVR before I get the chance," Ian said back.

"Is this what I'm like with Rosen when we argue?" Oliver pondered out loud.

"No, it's a lot funnier because you two can actually hit each other!" Tien said, giving a look to his younger brother.

I glanced back at Morty. *Admit it! You have the hots for this little asian bastard!* he thought at me.

"I can tell you're using telepathy," Mr. Dae suddenly said with a wink.

Instead of being embarrassed, I said, "Good then I can do this!" I released my hand from Morty's (I did not know I was still holding that) and punched him in his chest.

Morty laughed, but then paused. "Can you tell what we were thinking about?"

Mr. Dae laughed. "Nope, but I can tell you were being a smartass."

"Ain't that the truth!" I announced.

Morty responded by hitting my in the bicep. "I'll get you later."

"Why wait 'til later?" I said with a wag of my eyebrow.

"Guys," Mrs. Dae called. "Not at the dinner table... do it in the dojo after dinner."

I felt Morty think something racist. I didn't know what it was so I just punched him in the arm for good measure. "I would love to," I said.

"Don't start anything you can't finish!" Morty said.

"I got five bucks on E!" Tien said.

"I got ten on Morty!" Oliver said.

Rosen bit his lip. "I say fifteen on Morty."

"Well considering what Morty has told me about himself while E was gone, I have to say five on Morty," Mr. Dae said.

"Ditto," Mrs. Dae said.

"Well I feel like shit now..." I groaned.

"Hey, I have money on you!" Tien said, trying to cheer me up. "And Ian still hasn't cast his choice."

"My money's on him..." Ian said shyly, as all eyes on him. "Ten bucks."

"That money will be ours!" Oliver boomed.

"We'll see," I said with a smirk.

Ian

After dinner, we all went out to the practice dojo Dad had built a couple years back. The floors and walls were padded and practice dummies lined the outside. "Do me a favor, hold this?" Erebus asked me. When I didn't say anything , he smiled and draped his leather jacket over my face.

I laughed and removed it from my face. He stood in the middle of the dojo facing Morty. Morty grinned like crazy. They did a low bow to each other and assumed fighting stances while shifting in their true forms. "You know you're going to lose?"

"What, you going to try to teleport around me?" E said with a grin. "You know damn well I can sense that."

"Close," Morty said. The quick as a blink of an eye just vanished. Erebus' eyes bugged out. He glanced around first left the right and in a sudden blink, Morty appeared on Erebus' right and punched him in the face before vanishing again.

Erebus stood up straight and glanced around. "Learn a new trick?"

"Yep! Invisibility!" Morty's voice emanated from nowhere. "We didn't have school today so I practiced."

"You practicing for once, eh? That's rare." Morty responded by blinking in and punching Erebus right in the jaw, knocking him to the floor. Erebus tried to get up and throw a punch but Morty just disappeared. Erebus reached into his pocket and wiped his mouth. "Alright then, come at me."

Morty blinked and punched Erebus. Erebus tried to throw a punch right back but Morty disappeared. "You're too slow!" Morty taunted.

"Really?" Erebus said, grinning like a madman. His voice sounded strange like he had something in his mouth. Erebus opened one of his hands to reveal an X Speed. Just as he was about to use it, Morty appeared to grab it. In an instant, Erebus smiled to reveal an X Speed already in his mouth. He bit down and used it.

In a sudden flash of motion, Erebus... I'm not sure, he like blurred and slammed into Morty. Morty blinked out again while Erebus just stood still and waited. From behind, Morty had blinked back in. Erebus whirled around and kicked him in the chest. Erebus rushed him and landed a solid blow to Morty's jaw.

What happened next surprised everyone. Morty teleported just as Erebus made contact. They reappeared five feet in the air and upside down. Erebus, unable to use levitation and too surprised to do anything else, landed on his head while Morty just floated there.

Erebus groaned and rolled onto his butt. "Since when can you take passengers?"

Morty rubbed his head while floating upside down. He looked like he was going to be sick. "I can't, you just followed me."

"That makes no sense!"

"Shut up..." Morty groaned while righting himself midair.

Erebus grinned and jumped up onto his feet and in the air faster than I could blink. Those X Speeds can do wonders. Erebus spiked Morty onto the ground like a volley ball. Morty jumped onto his feet just as Erebus landed on the ground. Erebus threw a punch but it went right through Morty. Like right through him. Oh right, ghost type, he could pass through certain objects.

Erebus stumbled forward and Morty took advantage of that. He kicked Erebus in the back forcing him to roll. Erebus got back up and charged Morty. Just as he punched, Morty attempted to turn intangible again but there was a sudden crackle of electricity and a flash of light and Morty hit the ground.

"Oh so we're using powers now?" Morty asked as he got up.

"You're the one who's been using your abilities this entire fight," Erebus replied.

"You're just mad because the only ability you have is speed and not being able to be seen when it's dark, and, news flash, all black people have that ability!"

Erebus frowned and growled but then smiled as we all laughed at Morty's racist joke.

"Ok enough messing around," Erebus said, holding up his hand like he was holding an invisible ball.

"Agreed," Morty said, making the same gesture.

Irene stuck her hand out. "OK we all might want to take a step back," she said to us. We complied and took a couple steps away from their fighting area. When we did, both the fighters each made a shadow ball in their hands.

They both laughed like maniacs as they threw their balls rights at each other... I feel like that's a sexual innuendo but I'm not a complete teenage boy yet so forgive my lack of obsession of testicles. I found it funny that I wasn't obsessed with testicles considering I'm gay... Where was I?

Oh, right! They threw their balls at each other and they met midair. As they met, they exploded and sent a wave of darkness throughout the dojo. That slammed us all into the wall, but thanks to Irene we were already basically braced against it.

The instant the wave of darkness disappeared, Morty and Erebus went at it. Shadows danced across the dojo, brilliant colors of purple and black flashed across my eyes as I watched these two warriors of the shadows duke it out. I had no idea what attacks they were using and even if I did, most of them went by too quick for me to even name them.

This went on and on against each other until they were standing in front of each other, bruised and battered, huffing and puffing, eyes narrowed at each other and yet they were both smiling.

"Been awhile since we went at it like this," Erebus huffed.

"Yea, E," Morty agreed. "It's usually over by now. With me straddling your hips." Morty gave a smile and a wink.

Erebus rolled his eyes. "Well this is it. You ready?"

Morty nodded. They both held their hands out in front of him. The shadows began to swirl and moved toward them. In their hands, they both held enormous shadow balls. They both huffed and shot off their balls... ok really starting to see all the sexual innuendos... god getting older sucks.

When the balls collided (oh, Jesus), they really slammed into each other with immense power. Morty and Erebus leaned toward the two fighting balls. The small indent of yellow on Erebus' forehead started to turn into a sort of half ring. Erebus and Morty's outstretched arms started to shake a little. Morty was to first to steady his with his other arms then Erebus did the same. The balls really started to slap against each other... I hear it and I don't care.

Waves of shadows started to discharge. Eventually both balls broke, causing another, more powerful wave of darkness to sweep the little dojo and even rocked it a little. Both warriors of darkness stood against each other. Morty opened his mouth to say something but ended up falling on his face.

"I guess you guys owe the Dae brothers a buttload of money," Erebus said before falling over himself.

Erebus

I really hated Morty right now. He made me use so much darkness when we fought, the darkness inside me had stirred.

I was back in that gray room. This time the shadows remained where they were.

"See what happens when you use my power unrestrained," the voice said.

I glanced around. "I see what happens. I use your power and it goes crazy. Who knows what would have happened if I hadn't held back? The Daes and the twins were already thrown against the wall and the dojo was shaking around like crazy. If I hadn't held back, the whole place would have probably went down!"

"And yet it didn't. If you would practice-without the aid of your little ghost friends, you would be able to use the darkness without harming anyone but your enemies. Darkness it's evil!" The voice roared.

"Morty and Irene stop you from invading my mind and making me violent…" I responded calmly.

"The only reason I make you violent is because you keep me chained in the corners of your mind! You chain me with your consciousness and drink to suppress me in your subconscious! You don't let me go free and that makes me more violent than a rabid dog, but I am a part of you! When you force me away, you only harm your own mind!"

"You are not me!"

"You _wish_ I wasn't you!"

I was shaking with anger now. I started to move through this cramped little room. "You are not a part of me!" I screamed. I threw my hands out and the room exploded around me. I was suddenly surrounded by a pretty purple and blue aurora borealis like colors. It was peaceful and calming. This new place in my heart, my brain, where ever I was, it reminded me of the Dive to the Heart.

"This won't stop me," The voice sang out. I turned around rapidly. From the other side of my new inner sanctum, dark, smoky shadows started to form. They stopped in the corner and stayed there, swirling. "This change doesn't weaken me, If anything, it makes me stronger!"

"Oh my God!" I breathed as I saw a figure start to emerge from the shadows. This is the first time the voice actually manifested into a physical form (if this was all inside me, would he still have a physical form?). Even worse, he looked just like me. He was dressed in an all black tuxedo with a blood red tie and blood red handkerchief hanging from the blazer's pocket. He had the same military haircut I had, only his was cleaner. To my surprise, he was shifted into an umbreon form, like mine, but his canines were sharp, the yellow ring on his forehead was full and glowing brightly, and his eyes. His eyes were blood red with tiny black pupils that seemed to bore into my soul.

"This is me," he said smoothly. "This is you. This is us. You are darkness. You have a lot more abilities than just running around and jumping. You can walk dreams and see warnings of what's to come. Yes, you can already do this, but they are vague, they are incomplete. If you would allow me to shape your mind and your powers, you can do so much more. No person will challenge you, no person could beat you, no person shall dare put a hand on Irene, Morty, Lilith, or Aaron again. You could have love, life, power! You can have so much if only you would join with me!"

I shook my head and started to inch backward. I was sweating and shaking in my shoes. "I will not be a stereotype," I mumbled.

The Other frowned. "The 'stereotypes' you fear are just old wives' tales that no one ever follows. The fears you have of me are…. This is pointless, you're not listening." The sad part was, I was listening. Everything he said was tempting me into letting him take over. Every argument he made seemed legit. I almost wanted to let him take over. Almost.

The Other was a killer though. I always did my best to not kill anyone, even though I could. I will admit, I have blood on my hands, but that wasn't in cold blood, it wasn't just on a whim. It was I self defense or the defense of others. I committed murder when it was the very last option. But the Other was always there, trying to get me to kill, always trying to get me to eliminate a target or anyone who was a threat, like the baltoy. Like Hank... Like Giovanni...

Or Tien.

I couldn't let that happen. I couldn't let this killer take over my mind. I started to back up, trying to wake myself up, to get myself out of here. The Other frowned. "You cannot escape me. I will take over one of these days. This I swear, I've walked the dream world. One day, something will happen and I will be free!" The Other looked away, he looked almost… sad. "The sad part is if you were to join with me now, it could be prevented." He looked back at me to gauge my reaction.

Could he see into the future? Could he really see what was going to happen? What could it be? Again I was tempted to allow him in, if anything to just protect my friends. I froze in place. The Other smiled at this. He had been watching me, gauging my reaction. I started to walk towards me, the shadows following him. He held his hand out to me. I could feel my heart clench and I felt all the murderous thoughts that were swirling in his-in my head.

Before he could get any closer, a familiar purple shadow appeared. "Whoa!" Morty said as he formed from the purple shadow. He held a hand out and bright silver chains flew out from the darkness and clamped down on the Other's neck, arms, and legs and began to pull him back, away from me. "Well that was new," Morty said. He looked to me. "Is this the first time he's done this?"

I nodded. Morty walked over and places a hand on my shoulder. "Come on, let's get moving. It's time for you to wake up!"

My eyes flew open, I sat straight up, and I took a big breath. "Owe, my head," I said, as Morty stepped out of me. "Where am I?"

"My bed," Tien said.

"Where?"

"My bed, you passed out after you and Morty spared."

"So I'm in your bed right now."

"Yessir."

"I'm guessing Morty went to town with that joke already?"

"You betcha. Thankfully my parents didn't hear that."

I groaned and leaned back. "What happened to me?"

"You had a sort of psychic headache."

"Ah, crap."

"What are those?" I jumped as Ian asked his question. I had no idea he was sitting right there.

"A psychic headache," Tien began, "unlike the other types, dark, psychic, and ghost types powers are mental not physical. When you exert the amount of power Morty and Erebus did, it tends to give a guy a headache."

"I pushed it a little too hard to kick Morty's butt, so I guess the drawbacks was a psychic headache and then a sudden urge to sleep" I added.

"Dad gave you a full restore while you were out, by the way," Tien said.

"How long have I been out?" I asked.

"About five minutes. When Morty woke up, he noticed that yellow thing on your forehead was a full ring so he got worried and phased into you. What was happening?"

"Bad dream," I half lied. I started to get up.

"Don't go," Tien said, putting his soft hands on my chest. Really not the best time to be thinking about that. Honestly, Tien was pretty hot. He was awkward at times and really quiet but he was hot and him touching me when my defenses were down could result in my jeans suddenly becoming entirely too small. "You should stay here and rest," Tien said.

"Yea, we have plenty of room," Ian agreed.

"Oh, and I'm guessing you want him in your bed, huh shorty?" Morty replied with a snicker. I snarled, nice and low. A small ripple of darkness snaked out and hit Morty in the chest. I glared at him. *I need to go home!*

*Why? If anything you should stay here and let Mr. Dae take care of your little psychic headache.*

*What happens when I need to sleep? I need the alcohol!*

Morty looked away. A subtle way of saying he didn't like the idea one bit.

"Trouble in paradise?" Tien asked.

I rolled my eyes. "Where's Irene?"

"Asleep on the couch waiting on you."

I got up again. "Sorry but I have to get up and go home. We'll hang out again as soon as possible."

Tien frowned and Ian looked disappointed.

"If we're going, I'm driving."

"If you insist," I said. I reached into my pocket and threw him my key. "Where's my jacket?"

"Over here!" Ian piped up.

I gave him a warm smile. "Thanks," I said as I reached out and he handed it to me. I slowly got out of Tien's bed half expecting Morty to say something but like I said he didn't approve of the way I usually handle the voice- the Other so he wasn't gracing me with his jokes.

The Dae brothers lead us out of the house after waking up Irene and as we left their parents came out.

"Come back again soon!" Mr. Dae said.

"You're welcome here anytime!" Mrs. Dae agreed.

"We will," I said smiling. I looked to the Dae brothers. "You two are welcome over my place anytime too, with or without the assignment from Whitney. Tell the twins their welcome too!"

"I will," Tien smiled. With that, the three of us left. I slinked into my urus' passenger side and realized I was tired as hell but I couldn't go to sleep. When Morty started the car, I hit the A/C and blasted My Shit Bang as loud as I could. I couldn't go to sleep. I text Aaron and told him to put on the tea.

"So anyone want to explain what happened?" Irene asked from the back seat as Morty drove all the six blocks to my place.

"E is drinking his problems away," Morty deadpanned.

"Dude, that's all I can do to keep that... Other at bay!"

"There are other ways to deal with it!"

"Like how?"

"LIke embracing it and learning to control it!"

"I'm not letting that- that *thing* in my head! I will not be evil!"

"What if he's truly not evil and that's just the way he seems because of all the darkness around him!"

"No, that's not it!"

"Could've fooled me," Morty growled. "As I remember, you didn't exactly think of me as all that good when we first met."

I was shocked. "That's not fair... you knew my mom was-"

Morty shook his head. "I know but... maybe this Other isn't really evil, he might just be... primal. It might be a challenge or something, you don't know for sure what it is!"

"But you don't hear him. When you're not in my head, not inside of me, you have no idea the things he whispers."

"E, sweety," Irene chimed in. "We all have that little voice."

"You're just so crazy, it makes itself real," Morty said with a smile. I lightly punched him in the arm. We couldn't stay mad at each other for long. Morty sighed. "Look, drinking should be used as a last resort. You need to learn to deal with your fucking insanity another way."

"It only gets bad when I use a lot of darkness so..."

"Don't use dark type moves," Irene said. "You can use a bunch of psychic and ghost moves anyway, use those. Dark should be a last resort."

Morty pulled into my parking space and we slowly made our way into the apartment. Aaron was there, pouring the tea.

"How was your little party?" I asked, getting the brandy out and spiking the tea. I chose to ignore Morty's deep frown. Aaron proceeded to go on and on about the party. He told me all about the people he danced with, the food, the music.

"The best part is, I actually forgot about a lot of crap for a long time!" Aaron smiled. I was leaning up against the counter while Aaron told us his story.

I smiled. "We all need that every once in awhile. I'm glad you had fun."

"I'm glad you let me off the leash, Dad," Aaron said with a wink. He actually referred to me as "dad". He did, didn't he?

"You mean 'Mom', right Aaron?" Morty said with a slight cackle.

Aaron laughed as he walked over to me. He wrapped his arms around my midsection, surprising me. "Thanks for letting me go," he said. I was still in slight shock over the whole dad comment but I still wrapped my arms around him. "Mom." he continued. I set my tea down and tried to punch him but he saw it coming and ran away.

"I'm going to get you for that comment, you little shit!" I hollered.

I heard him laugh as he locked himself into the guest bedroom. I smiled to Irene. "You staying here tonight, Queen of Frost?"

Irene looked at the wall clock. "Sure, might as well." She skipped off to the second guest bedroom.

"Come on," Morty said, putting his arm around me. "Time for bed."

The next morning, we were all groggy. Morty and I just wore pajama bottoms while Irene was wearing a full purple nightgown and Aaron was wearing a onesie I had gotten him as a joke gift our first christmas together.

I had just finished cooking and setting the table when a cold wind over took my little apartment. The room shook and once again I was met with one hundred eight reasons to run and hide under my blankets curled up with those I loved.

The rift that was in my ceiling started to shake, rattle, and roll. My rift was specifically built to keep people from teleporting in, via another rift or one of the riftless types of teleportation. Morty, Irene, and a select few others could teleport in and out of my home without my rift stopping them.

There was only one person in the world that could bust through my rift without being seriously injured or worse.

Just like there was only one person in the world that I truly feared. One person that I would never want to fight. There was only one and he had busted his way in and was standing in front of me now, wearing an expression of white hot anger and fear.

"Hey, Martin," I said.

"You messed up," he hissed.

I gulped. "How?"

"The serum. Not all of it was destroyed!" Martin's eyes turned a dangerous shade of sickly green. "You need to fix this! If you don't, I swear..."

I didn't want to know what he swore but... "How do I fix it?" I asked immediately.

Martin scowled. "We found out that Altru Inc. was in charge of the whole thing. They planned on taking over human minds to begin to rule the world. You *did* manage to set them back months, but someone had predicted your arrival and saved a single vial. That single vial can easily recreate the entire thing in a matter of weeks! WEEKS!"

I flinched at this. "How do I-"

"I'm getting to that! At four o'clock tonight, they're moving the serum from their factory in San Jose down to Los Gatos. Stake the place out and destroy it!"

Oh crap. "Can anyone else do-"

"NO! This was your job and you failed to complete it. Had you just slaughtered all those baltoy... It was one of the survivors who had the serum. It was your fault, you fix it!"

I closed my eyes and looked away. "I can't just kill."

"And since you can't, you have to miss out on your little movie hopping night." With that, the wind picked up again and all one hundred and eight reasons to run away left my body, but it did leave me with the feeling to cry. I opened my eyes and looked at Aaron.

"I'm so sorry, dude," was all I could say.

"It's my fault," I heard him mutter before he ran off and locked himself in the guest bedroom. I started to give chase but Irene put her hand on my shoulder. She shook her head.

"It's not his fault," I said. "It's mine, I should have made sure there was no other serum. Now I have to miss our movie night... And Aaron and I really haven't hung out in forever and..."

"You're ranting," Morty said. "Look, if you want, i can-"

"No, I... I have to do it."

"But maybe if I go with you, you can just be done real quick and we can do the movie night later."

"No, no, no! You go with him to the movies, watch the first one without me and I'll finish the job as quick as a whick and be in time to hop to the next three movies. I can make this worse."

"But it'll more than likely be heavily guarded," Irene said. "The only way you can go through all those baltoy is by..."

"I'll just incapacitate them. Break a few bones if I have to. I'm not killing unless I have to!" I shook my head. I walked over to Aaron's room and knocked on the door. "Let me in or I'll force my way in."

Aaron unlocked the door and opened it. The second he did that, I threw my arms around him.

"I'll be there for the last three movies. Nothing short of death will stop me."

"But you have to fight again. Last time those baltoy nearly ripped you apart. Even worse, what if there's a claydol? That'll be even worse."

"I'll handle it-"

"But you shouldn't have to!"

I squeezed Aaron closer to me wishing that I had something to say that would make him feel better. "But I am. I'm helping people out in the world and if I didn't they'd reassign me like they did Lilith. I can't move away from here. I have Irene, and Morty and now I even have the Dae brothers and the twins. And I have you too. I'm not leaving. If that means going on a dangerous mission every once in awhile to protect you, I'll do it. I'll kill to keep you safe."

**AAANNNDD That's it for tonight. Please give me feedback on how the rest of the chapters should be going. GNIGHT!**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N Ok so I need to slow down, I'm only a few chapters ahead of this so I'm only adding one chapter this time. It's a short one. But filled with a lot of things. Lots of things. ENJOY!**

**Chapter 8**

Later that night I was in middle of downtown San Jose just waiting. I found the Altru building and was currently staking out the back. At exactly four o'clock I saw a small black limo surrounded by four guys on kawasaki motorcycles surrounding it. I think they were guarding something. And I think they were about to get jumped.

I sprang from my hiding place and into the street in front of them. Not bothering to care, I instantly used my styler to blast the lead motorcyclist off their bikes. The limo was going too fast and had rolled their fallen allies over. They were Pokémon though, they would survive that no problem with a broken bone here or there.

The limo came to a halt. I ran up and smashed through the sunroof. The second I landed in the cramped space, I saw what I was looking for. I small briefcase that some scientist looking fellow was holding onto for dear life. I fired a shadow ball at it and it exploded.

"No!" I heard him yell. "The serum!"

Ok so I had gotten it right this time. I concentrated and using my styler I unleashed dozens of the most powerful dark rings I could muster. The entire back of the limo exploded with dark force and shrapnel. I hoped that everyone had at least survived. I began to run as fast as I could.

"Get him, Ghetis!" I heard someone yell. Oh, so there's a Ghetis. Bring him on! I ran into an abandoned building. It wasn't very well lit which was perfect for me. I hoped this Ghetis wasn't a ghost or dark type. I'd lose what little advantage I had here.

Suddenly the door to the little abandoned building exploded. A hyper beam. I was standing away from the door and that thing still had force enough to send me on my ass. I sprang up as quickly as I could.

Ghetis was a claydol as it turned out, a psychic and ground type, the evolved form of baltoy. Ghetis' skin was all black. He was a rounded man who was floating off the ground. His eyes were huge, red, and had a white rim around them. What was really freaking was his rather buff arms were floating... away from his body... creepy.

"Do you really believe that the serum ends there?" Ghetis spoke. He sounded like a robot. Or cyborg.

"I believe I set you back a while," I responded, adjusting my mask.

"You set back nothing!" Ghetis actually smiled. It was a small yet creepy facial expression. "We still have the ingredients on a harddrive and a hard copy."

I raised an eyebrow. "*A* hardcopy?"

"Yes, only one. We cannot risk it being stolen. Data copies will suffice. But you." Ghetis' face turned dark. "You must be eliminated!" Ghetis roared.

"Don't you mean 'exterminated'," I said. "I would have also accepted 'deleted' but with your arm lasers, you're more dalek than cyberman."

"Enough witty banter!" He roared as he began a rapid spin attack. His entire body began to rotate and fly at me. I barely had enough time to twirl out of the way. I thought I was in the clear but this Shetis character was powerful. The force from his rapid spin sent me spinning and slammed me in the wall. As I staggered to get up, I knew I couldn't let this guy get a direct hit. I adjusted my mask and prepared to fight.

Ghetis was on me in a second. I blocked his punch, but got caught in the shoulder (yes the left one) with his portly leg and I was pressed against the wall. Ghetis unleashed a barrage of punches at my chest that I didn't know I could survive. I felt one of my ribs- two of my ribs snap like twigs.

Ghetis took a step back and side kicked me in the gut as hard as he could. As hard as he could meant that I went through the already unsturdy wall I was slammed against. I was sprawled out on the floor. My shoulder felt like it was on fire, my ribs were broken in more than one place, and my stomach and midsection felt like, well, someone had kicked me through a wall. Ghetis loomed over me. I tried to get up but he planted his ugly boot on my chest and roughly slammed me back on the ground. I bent down and smacked me across my jaw, knocking my mask off. With his other hand he knocked me across the face before uppercutting me.

I wanted to cry. This man, this claydol, the creature that was Ghetis was powerful beyond compare. His strikes felt like concrete blocks being dropped on me. I wanted to scream out in pain. I wanted this stop, but I knew it wouldn't. I also knew I couldn't give this asshole the satisfaction of knowing how much pain I was in so I kept quiet.

Ghetis took a step back and lifted his hand. I looked at him deep in his eyes. I felt so much anger. I couldn't die here. I couldn't die in an abandoned building, beaten to a pulp, not while people still needed me. I couldn't die no matter what.

I thought of all the people I loved and cared for and who needed me and I wanted to cry. I couldn't do this. I couldn't even think about doing this. But then I thought of all those who I loved.

So I let go and let it happen.

**A/N AAAAANNNNDDDD... Cliffie :D as my wonderfully awesome english teacher would say, #sorrynotsorry! When I write a couple more chapters I'll upload. Shout out to my newest follower that inspired me to upload this chapter :D**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Morty

I was at the Cipher building on the east side of San Jose. When I got the call, I was in the theater with Aaron cuddling with Irene. We ran as fast as we could to the car and back to Erebus' house. We used his rift to get into the building and ran and ran and ran until we got to his room.

"We can't let you in now!" one of the chanseys who worked her told me.

"Bull," I growled, pushing past her. The door was locked, as if that would stop me. I grabbed Aaron's hand and we phased right through the door. Irene used her own ghost powers to phase through the door after me. I saw Erebus laying on a bed, his shirt off, bruises all over his body. I heard Irene's breath catch and I had to hold Aaron up by the arm. With my other arm, I wrapped it around Irene and started to cry. I couldn't believe what I was looking at.

My best friend on the verge of death.

"You can't be in here," the head chansey said. I had only realised we were surrounded by the doctor types who were working on Erebus.

"Bullshit!" I yelled.

"Are you family?" one of the other chanseys asked.

That hurt. "We're the closest thing he has." The words barely made it out with making me want to scream. "What's going on?"

The chansey all looked at me.

"Answer me!" I roared. All the lights in the room dimmed and slowly turned to normal and the shadows became more real.

"He's alive!" one chansey quickly said. Irene stopped sniffling and looked up.

"But something's wrong," another said. "We can't heal him, something's blocking it." When she said that, I noticed for the first time that the ring on Erebus' forehead was nearly filled in. I ran over to him and placed my hand on his forehead. I reached into his head and tried to phase into his mind like I had done a million times before and like the chansey had said, I was being blocked. So I did my best from out here. I pooled as much of my mind into Erebus as I could manage and slowly the block started to come down.

Erebus suddenly sat straight up and inhaled sharply. I felt one of the chanseys pull me back as Erebus groaned in pain. They worked on him for about half an hour. I had learned that Erebus had completed his task but the guy he was facing beat him up pretty bad. They had finally finished working on him and fucked off. I practically ran to Erebus' side. Both Aaron and Irene beat me.

Irene sat on Erebus' lap while Aaron sat on the bed next to him.

"What happened, E?" I asked, hoping my voice didn't betray too much worry.

Erebus went on to explain everything that happened. It was a surprisingly short story but that just goes to show you just how short our lives could be. I couldn't take my eyes off each bruise on Erebus' body and couldn't help but beat myself up. I should never have brought him to Cipher, I thought.

"So what now?" Aaron asked. "You can't let those formulas and stuff just be out there in the world."

Erebus' averted his eyes. "I guess I have to go after it. The building they're being sent to is in Los Gatos."

"I'm going with you," I said. Erebus nodded.

"I have something to pick up from tech real quick and go."

Erebus

There's this facebook group called "I've always wanted to spin round in a chair and say 'I've been expecting you.'" I liked it because it's true, I always wanted to do it. I got my chance while I was waiting in Blake's office of the Altru building. He was the CEO of this place and head of the whole serum project.

When I heard the door open, I swiveled around in the chair and said, "I've been expecting you." Oh yea worth it.

"Who are you?" The man who I assumed was Blake asked. His hair was just black and tied up in a ponytail. He wore black sunglasses and his skin was pale us sun. He had two very lovely female assistants standing on either side of them. "What's with the oni mask, kid?"

"The better question is," I growled, "where are the formulas and plans for the serum?"

Blake actually grinned. "Right here."

"Hand them over."

"Not a chance," Blake said. He looked to one of his assistants. "Call Ghetis, get him here quick."

"Ghetis is dead." I said. I let that thought hang there. "Killed him myself. Just when he was about to off me I lost all control. Faster than anyone could blink, I was behind him... I got him in a rear naked choke hold and squeezed. He struggled and struggled but it was no use. I was pissed. I would have loved to feel the life slip out of him but I didn't have time for that. I jerked my arm and snapped his neck." None of that was true. I mean, yea Ghetis was dead, what I just snapped the guys neck. I didn't... make him suffer. I tried to make it as quick as possible. "So I ask you, Blake. Do you really want to fuck with me today?"

Blake swallowed hard. "It doesn't matter if you get the hard copy because there's-there's still a data copy backed up."

Pathetic. I snorted. "I already uploaded a virus into your system. It's already gone through and deleted almost all the copies-" I felt my phone go off in my pocket "-scratch that, all of the copies as of now. I just need the hard copy so we can make a counter product if you even think about trying this again. At least that way I don't have to maim and murder you're stupid little grunts." In a small gesture, Blake's hand slipped off the briefcase. In that small second, Morty moved. He popped out from the shadows and yanked the briefcase out of Blake's hands. Morty, with his free hand, grabbed Blake around the throat. Morty's eyes glowed with power and Blake fell to the ground.

"Nighty night, Cinderella," Morty cackled. He disappeared and reappeared in my shadow.

"Call the rangers!" one of the assistants said.

Shit. Morty phased into me and we blasted out of the window. Using Morty's power, we easily glided down to the building adjacent to the Altru building. I heard the sounds of pursuit and turned around to face my opponents.

"Oh shit!" Morty said inside of me.

Oh shit indeed.

**A/N HAHA another cliffie :D I uploaded this because I saw I got a new follower, so shout out to MrPirate461! As an FYI I have up to chapter... i think 14 written I just like to be ahead of the ball game. Plus I changed the story board a bit and I'm trying not to have to go back and fix things that are, ya know, already published -_-"**

Anyway ENJOY!


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

Tien

I couldn't believe I was standing outside wearing a real ranger uniform. After Giovanni, the twins, and I took our test for the practice stylers, the rangers who were there immediately let all of us take the next test and all four of us PASSED!

Giovanni and I with flying colors.

Then to my surprise, they brought us BOTH in for a mission!

Chairperson Erma called us into her office at the top of the Ranger Union. She was an elderly ninetails that's both respected and feared in our world. "Altru Inc. has had a string of attacks aimed at it. We're really just sending you guys to be the look out. A sort of deterrent. Don't do anything too dangerous alright?"

Giovanni and I both nodded and we were sent off.

It was a cold night and it was around six o'clock at night. The rangers almost called us back because they had found the dead body of claydol after an explosion of a limo a block away but they figured they were two unrelated events so they kept up on the roof of the ALtru building.

Giovanni was flipping his styler in his head. "That faggot Erebus'll be so jealous!" he said. I nodded at him. "I mean seriously, we passed with flying colors! Better than he did!"

"Keep in mind his test was much harder than ours..." I said quietly.

Giovanni narrowed his eyes me. "But we still passed better than he did!"

"But if you did the same test would you have passed?" I asked. Normally I didn't get into with Giovanni. He was too much and it wasn't worth arguing with him or bringing up a counter point but Erebus was a good guy and then there was my brother... Before it was moderately annoying when Giovanni would be hateful but now that I've spent time with E and seeing him support my brother, Giovanni's comments set my teeth on edge.

I was saved from having to deal with this when we heard a sudden crash of glass coming from directly below us.

We moved quick. We saw a figure jump out of President Blake's office. Giovanni and I put as much power into our jump as we could. Giovanni made the jump and rolled no problem but I had a little more trouble. I barely landed on the edge. I managed to throw myself forward and rolled and got on my feet and faced off with our suspect.

He wore a black and silver trimmed oni mask and hood blocking his face and the rest of his head. He wore a black tanker jacket with what looked like military ranks on his shoulders/ High up on his left forearm was a red patch with a white... is that a winged snake? Da faq? He wore black combat pants and boots. In his hand was a silver briefcase with big black letters on the side that read "Altru Inc." This guy looked like a moon demon with the full moon glowing right behind him and his long shadow being casted. That combined with the oni mask and all that black made me a bit scared.

"Who are you?" Giovanni roared.

The oni tilted his head to the side and then froze. He just stared at us. There was something oddly familiar about him.

"Who are you?" Giovanni roared again. The oni didn't respond. He just remained frozen and he seemed to get darker. I felt like there was something not quite right about this. I felt like there was someone or something right behind me. I risked taking my eyes off the enemy. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a giant... hand coming at me. I pulled my styler out and shot a psychic orb out blowing the giant hand away.

Giovanni spun around and noticed a giant hand behind him as well. He easily got rid of his too. I looked and noticed the black hand was coming from the oni's shadow. I turned back to the oni. I really didn't want to face this guy head on. We had no idea what type he was, what abilities he had, or anything else. Giovanni couldn't wait though and didn't care. He charged right at the oni with a fire punch.

The oni ducked and swept at Giovanni's legs causing my friend to crash on the floor. The oni's back was to me so I used that as a perfect opportunity. I inhaled deeply and concentrated. I shot a psybeam out of my mouth.

The oni arched his back in pain as my attack hit. He turned to me and it looked like he was about to attack but Giovanni sprang. Giovanni grabbed the briefcase and ice punched the oni in the back making him let go of the briefcase.

The oni spun around and kicked Giovanni in his side. Giovanni took the hit. "Tien!" he yelled, tossing my the briefcase. The oni started to follow after it. I caught it and shot another psybeam out of my mouth. The oni crossed his arms and took the shot while still barreling at me.

He got close and he grabbed the briefcase. I pulled back and tried to keep the briefcase in my hands, but the oni kneed my in my thigh. Then he elbowed me in the chest. this dude wouldn't let up, but I've been hit harder than that.

The oni yanked the briefcase and then kneed it in the air. While it was airborne, the oni attacked me with an oral shadow ball to my face. I flew backwards a foot or two and landed on my ass. I kicked back up and the Oni jumped up to grab the suitcase.

The oni then just stood there. Midair. Levitating. Wow.

Out of nowhere there was a loud bang and an explosion and the oni was sent sprawling onto the ground... roof... whatever.

Giovanni and I got close in fighting stances, stylers at the ready. We were prepared for whatever this oni had up his sleeve. He slowly got up and faced us. His hands weren't up in any fighting gesture but he held the briefcase behind him.

When Giovanni tried to get a step closer, the oni wiped his hand out and a crack of electricity snapped at Giovanni's feet causing him to shuffle back.

"What kind of Pokémon are you?" Giovanni roared. "How do you do the things you do?"

The oni slowly raised his hands. He bowed his head.

Giovanni started to move.

"No wait!" I said, holding him back. "I think he's up to something. Don't move."

The oni nodded he slowly moved away. With his free hand he reached out and grabbed a metal pole attached to an AC unit. The second he did this, I was thrown off my feet from behind. Giovanni and I were hit from behind and sent head over heels right past the oni. He was hanging on for dear life. Giovanni and I slammed into each other and then into a low wall. As soon and Giovanni and i untangled ourselves from each other and got up, the oni had jumped up. Before he landed on the ground, a large silver figure swooped under the oni and flew away. Giovanni and I just stood there staring. We had lost our target.

That night I went home in a stupor. I had later found out the Blake had been sent into a coma. Altru Inc. never told the rangers never told us what the oni had stolen. They were all very secretive about it and claimed not to have any idea.I weakly told my family about what had happened. They were proud of me and glad that I was ok but I still failed like I had failed.

**A/N So finally Erebus' secret life is starting to get closer and closer to Tien and worse, Giovanni. How will this turn out in the future? Stay tuned for the next episode of DRAGON BALL- er... EBONY AND IVORY!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

Tien

The next night we all met up at Erebus' house to head to gym. For once Morty and Irene were joining us. We weren't going to Blackthorn, we were going to our gym, the one with Whitney held at INS.

I had decided to ride with Erebus in his Urus. It was just us two alone.

"I suggest you be on my team," he said after a moment of comfortable silence.

"What?"

"Don't you read the newsletter that's sent out? We're playing a game of dodgeball tonight. With special balls."

I chuckled a little bit at this. "What kind of special balls?"

"The kind that explode in white cream if you play with them too much."

I almost died of laughter right then and there. "Seriously," I gasped between laughs. "What's so special about th-these b-balls...?"

Erebus was grinning. "We can channel our powers through them. It'll be extremely difficult to but we can. Trust me, be on my team."

"Against the twins and Giovanni?"

"Rosen is already going to be on my side. Or should I say with Morty's team."

"Those two have become fast friends."

"I know right? But Morty is a pretty likeable fella."

"So are you, E."

He smiled. "I would say the same about you if you would stop making me strain my ears to hear you."

I gave him a look, shook my head, and proceeded to look out the window

"Aww are you pouting?" Erebus asked. I couldn't see him but I could tell he was smiling. I just reached over and turned the stereo up.

When we got to the gym, Whitney announced that there would be two huge teams. "We will be on a timer so be watchful. The winner will be decided by either last man standing or the team with the most people when time runs out. The winning team will all get red scales while the overall winning player, whether it be the last man standing or the MVP," she paused, "will get this!" From her pocket, Whitney pulled out a Clear Bell. A freaking Clear Bell. It was a beautiful little bell that was connected to legends. These were extremely rare items. Most of them were locked up and heavily coveted. I always wanted one. And this was my chance.

So of course when it was time to pick sides, I jumped on Erebus' team. His group was slightly smaller but I knew Erebus could pull it off.

The game was being held one a giant court, about five times bigger than a basketball court and had two back walls. We weren't allowed to go to the other side of the court. The game began when six balls fell from the sky.

In about five seconds, my team had decimated most of the other side. Five seconds later we were left with only a dozen people on my side. I saw Morty flying around and floating, throwing his balls everywhere.

I was doing my best to dodge and duck. I couldn't get my hands around those special balls. It quickly got down to Me, Erebus, Morty, Rosen, and this really big guy names Peake. he was a golem, a rock type Pokémon. Big brutish Peake was throwing around his balls like nothing I've ever seen.

Erebus, I noticed, was just standing there. I wondered if he had moved at all during the course of the game. I glanced up and Giovanni was taking aim at Erebus. Erebus just crossed his arms and smirked. Giovanni launched his ball and it glowed pink as it flew. Erebus' eyes glowed bright blue for a moment and from behind Peake had reached around Erebus and deflecting the ball with another one.

Peake threw his ball and got Oliver out. It was down to Giovanni and 6 more psychic types. All six of Giovanni's teammates threw their balls right at Peake. Peake managed to dodge the first three but was quickly barraged by the rest and was thrown against the other wall. Rosen was dancing around and throwing balls. He got about two people out with two skilled curve balls. I finally got the chance to grab a ball. I remembered what Erebus said about channeling our powers through it.

I closed my eyes and tried to push a confusion attack out of the ball. It was hard, like forcing something in that didn't seem to fit. It really just wasn't going in. But eventually I did manage to force my power through it. It started to glow. I tried to make it levitate so it'd be easier to throw but I guess I need more power so I decided to chuck it as hard as I could. I was starting to get confident. I really could get the Clear Bell! I started to feel a bit of confidence when... Giovanni caught the ball I threw like nothing.

I was out.

I quickly rushed off the court and tried to mask my disappointment.

At least now I was able to watch the full struggle.

The second I was out, Rosen and Morty started throwing ball after ball at Giovanni. There were about a dozen floating around now and Rosen and Morty were flipping around doing their best to hit Giovanni but he was too quick. Erebus was just staying still and the remaining a dark statue. Giovanni's remaining teammates noticed this and they got together in close to each other.

They all pulled their arms back. Erebus smirked at this. All of them fired their balls off and they all glowed but they never hit Erebus. He folded to the ground like a rag doll. The balls flew over his head and they hit the backwall.

Erebus got to his feet in one weird fluid motion. He stomped his feet to the ground where the balls all jumped up. Erebus turned and roundhoused kicked toward his enemies. All the balls flew and slammed into the other team. Erebus single handedly eliminated about four people using balls that weren't that easy to channel one's powers through.

In that same instance, however, Giovanni had managed to catch a ball thrown by Morty. Giovanni did a spin move and threw his ball. The path of the ball rippled with power and it caught Rosen directly in the chest.

It was finally down to the two most powerful people in the room.

Giovanni moved first. He launched out and rolled onto the ground onto a ball. He righted himself and threw it. Erebus threw a hand out and a ball flew into his hand. He deflected Giovanni's ball and threw the one he was holding.

Giovanni leaned back and dodged that shit like it was the matrix. When he got up he was somehow holding another ball. Erebus slowly bent down and picked up another ball. They were at a standoff.

The thingie on Erebus' forehead started to glow. It wasn't filled in all the way still. Giovanni's eyes glowed like headlights and then they launched them. The balls flew and then they suddenly stopped about halfway through.

Giovanni and Erebus were holding their hands out and I understood what was happening. They were using their powers to block the others ball while still trying to push their ball to the other side.

The balls were glowing bright with power, both fighters were sweating hard trying to push their will onto one ball while trying to block another. It's hard enough using power on one ball, but I can only guess how hard it is to do two of those things.

"The timer's almost out, boys!" Whitney announced.

The balls started spinning hard and revolving and vibrating with power. Giovanni and Erebus started grunting and wailing and moaning trying to keep in control. Then it happened.

They both finally snapped. The balls flew with a loud crack and I only had time to see the one that flew out towards Giovanni. He had somehow managed to spin out of the way just in time. he was safe.

Then everyone gasped.

I looked to Erebus' side and it was covered in smoke and Erebus wasn't where he was standing a moment ago. I would be extremely surprised if Erebus had lost. I would've been equally surprised if Erebus had won. I expected this to end in some kind of tie.

Then I heard a cough. Erebus stepped out of the smoke, fanning the air around him with one hand and in his other... was a ball. Erebus had caught Giovanni's ball. I could tell it hurt a lot but the pain had to be worth it. Instead of being like Giovanni and preparing for another fight, Erebus had risked it to end a fight.

"I win," Erebus coughed. "You're out and one of my guys is in."

Erebus' team roared! Whitney had come out on the court and handed Erebus the Clear Bell. Erebus took it and stuck it in his pocket. When he did that everyone ran onto the court and cheered. Erebus was lifted up by some random people and they cheered.

When everyone was done celebrating the fact that Erebus demolished Giovanni, Whitney had finished handing out Red Scales, a small beautiful scale from a rare type of Pokémon, E tapped me on the shoulder and we went back to the car.

"Told you to be on my team," he said when we got onto the freeway.

I rubbed my Red Scale. "Yea I guess."

"What's the matter?" he asked.

I shook my head.

"Come on, tell me!" he playfully whined. I shook my head. Erebus grunted and turned up the music. He was playing Skrillex. I never really saw the point of dubstep, too chaotic, but every once in awhile a good song pops up.

Erebus pulled up to my house and said, "Here."

I turned to him and saw him holding out the Clear Bell.

"I saw the way you looked at it. Figured you wanted it." He dropped in my lap. "I already have a Lunar Wing and a Jade Orb... I don't need a Clear Bell, you can have it." He smiled at me. I picked it up.

"Thanks dude."

"Not a problem."

Erebus

So Cipher wanted me to stock up on medicine. They had heard one of our enemies had a big shipment coming in near Santa Cruz. Easy enough.

I drove fast as hell down to Seabright beach. I parked less than a block away. I waited in the car and soon, I saw Morty's audi r8, Lilith's audi Q4, and another audi Q4, but older. If you can't tell, we're really an audi kind of people.

Two recruits stepped out of the older Q4, Justin and Lamaar, two blond haired, blue eyed, rather short white boys. They were both haunters like Morty, but by far less powerful. They were dressed in the black utility uniform. I went to the back of my urus and popped the back. As I started to undress and get on my battle stuff, I noticed someone get out of Morty's audi.

"What the hell is Aaron doing here?" I asked.

"I think it's time for his first mission," Morty said simply. "He needs to learn this stuff." I could tell he wasn't happy.

"Orders from above?" I asked. Morty nodded. How the hell was I supposed to protect him on a mission like this. I looked at Lamaar as I started to put on the rest of my uniform. "Brief me."

"We are to accept a package coming in by way of speed boat here at Seabright beach. We are expecting there to be enemies attacking."

"What kind?"

"We're not sure but we were told to expect water types considering."

"Considering what?" I said, smiling.

Lamaar choked. "Uh, well, sir, we're near water and-"

"Yeah I know, I was just fucking with you."

I looked at Aaron once we were all dressed.

"Are you sure you're ready for this?" I asked.

His face hardened with resolve. "Yeah totally."

"Ok so this is how it's going to work. Morty and Irene are offense. You guys levitate and skim the waters. If anything pops out, smash'em hard! Justin you're on defense with me. We're gonna defend the boat while Lamaar runs the crates to the car from the boat... Aaron..." I really didn't want him here. Like honestly I wanted him home where he was... kind of safe. But he's here and I knew if I just had him out of the way and not doing anything, he'd get pissed. "Aaron, you're basically our forward. Cover Lamaar as best you can."

In the distance, I heard the sound of a speed boat motor.

"Let's do this, bitches," I said. I turned on my heel as I shifted and ran toward the shoreline. I heard the sounds of my comrades following me. I saw our contact waving on the boat. He looked frantic. I sped up the pace and stopped at shoreline. The speedboat nearly ran me over. The driver scrambled over the top and fell in the sand.

"He's hurt!" Lamaar yelled. I glanced and saw blood running down the side of our contact's face.

"Get him to your car," Morty said.

I jumped on the speed boat and grabbed a medium sized box. "Here," I said to Lamaar. "Take one of these with you! Aaron, cover him."

"Incoming," Lilith called. I looked out to the water. Sure enough three people were skimming over the tops of the water. They were dressed in all black, completely wrapped up. I couldn't even tell what kind of Pokémon they were.

"Blast'em!" I yelled. From above, Morty and Irene fired shadow balls and knocked two of them off their feet. They skidded and fell into the water but I knew they weren't out for the count. I shot a zap cannon at the one the was left standing. He twitched and shook but he was still on his feet. He landed on the beach and looked like I had taken a lot out of him. I ran out him and kicked him in the jaw. He fell over and groaned. I shot another zap cannon at him for good measure.

"We're back!" Lamaar hollored.

"Our contact safe?" I said as I used confusion to throw him another box.

"Safe and secure!"

"Good, keep it up!" I jumped on the boat and looked out to the ocean. Now I wished I posted Aaron here, he could sense where our opponents were. But I wasn't without a few tricks.

I stood perfectly still and waited. I had no idea what would happen but it would. And I was right. I heard something just to my left fly out of the ocean. I jumped back and dodged a water gun attack. Again, don't laugh, water gun is basically high pressured water that can cut through stone... That's what I thought. Gosh, you humans are so breakable.

Where was I?

Right, enemies. Lamaar had come back so I used my confusion to throw him another box. Just as I did, I got hit with a bubble beam. I ended up getting sprawled on the boat but other wise, I was able to jump back up to square off. Again this guy had on full black that covered everything. He held his hands out and water started to form around his hands. I flicked my wrist and hit him with a zap cannon.

He went down like a ton of bricks.

Seriously, water types and electric type moves are like fire and water... I know, bad analogy but you get the point.

I heard the sounds of struggle breaking out around me but I knew Morty and Irene had things covered from above while Justin hovered around me. I turned and watched Lamaar's return trip. He was floating just above the ground at high speeds while Aaron kept an even pace just behind him.

Suddenly, from below, Aaron was tripped up and landed face first in the sand. he rolled onto his back and prepared for the worst. He tried to get up but when he did he was only pulled to the back to the ground.

"Justin, cover Lamaar!" I commanded. I shot a zap cannon at the chick Justin was squaring off with and she hit the ground too. I couldn't keep this up. I had maybe two more zap cannon's like that in my...

Justin left his now fallen opponent and rushed to help Lamaar back to the boat. I threw them both boxes and told them to hurry. They nodded and floated high in the air to avoid the struggle between Aaron and whatever was attacking him.

I saw Aaron reach for his ankle and give a great heave. From the ground flew a person. This one didn't have everything covered up. I could see enough to ID this Pokémon. It was a Tentacruel. A fully evolved water/poison type jellyfish like creature. This one had a giant, wicked stinger coming out of his mouth. He had multiple tentacles coming out from his back and sides. His They were notorious for their powerful poisons... This wouldn't be a problem for Aaron... if he was fully evolved too, he'd be half steel then, immune to poison type attacks.

I was worried for Aaron but I couldn't move from the boat. I'm pretty sure I was the only thing stopping some other water type from jumping aboard and stealing our (possibly) stolen goods. So I waited and watched.

The tentacruel was the first to attack. Three of his tentacles moved as one in a wide ark. Aaron put up his arms crossed and absorbed the blow. Aaron went in close and punched the tentacruel in the face.

The tentacruel shook his head and lashed out with a couple of his tentacles again. It went on like this for a while. Aaron would block or dodge the tentacles and get in close for a good attack, but something was off.

Tentacruel don't know ground type moves. They couldn't use dig. How did that tentacruel end up underground? I had to figure it out and give Aaron some back up. I heard everyone else fighting so I had to jump in.

I jumped on the ground and ran at Aaron to back him up but I quickly found myself with a face full of sand. There was something grabbing by the ankle. I used my other foot to kick it off. I quickly flipped over and felt around under the sand and I felt a wet and slimy hand.

I gripped it and pulled with all my might.

I fell on my butt in the sand and was in a vulnerable position. I glared up at my opponent. I could tell right away it was a quagsire, half water, half ground Pokémon. the half ground part was a bitch. It meant this asshole was immune to electric attacks. This quagsire had blue skin and a pudgy face. Her tail was long and flat. She had beady little eyes that creeped me the fuck out.

I kicked up and swept low to the ground. The quagsire just jumped and avoided me.

I glared at her with all my might and she just laughed. "My, my, my, so quick to fight," he said. "Not even going to introduce yourself. I'm Beatrice and you are?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Ebah," I said in one breath.

Beatrice looked amused. "Evil brain with an angel heart, huh?"

I allowed myself to smile before throwing a shadow ball right at her ugly face. She stumbled back and opened her mouth to shoot a water gun at me. I crossed my arms and took the hit. It hurt but I'd live.

I jumped out and kicked her just in her chin. I barely made her lean backward. I landed onto the ground and she cold cocked me across the face. I quickly backed up but Beatrice kneed me in the gut. I fell onto my hands and knees. I shook my head and rolled out of the way. I got to my feet as quick as possible.

Beatrice laughed at me. "You're weak!" she barked. "You are nothing!" She cackled and cackled. It pissed me off. Who was this bitch to be telling me I am weak? Who was she? I looked at her and glared but she kept laughing at me.

I lost it. I completely lost it. I held one hand out and used confusion directly on her. I psychically squeezed her. She choked out a squeal. She growled and tensed her muscles.

"A weakling like you isn't going to defeat me!" she hollered. That was it. I pushed my hand down and she fell onto the ground. I squeezed and squeezed and squeezed. She gurgled and tried to break it but I held her tight.

I slowly walked over to her. "You just did," I said. I brought my boot to her temple and knocked her completely out. Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder. I spun around and threw a punch. I thought that it was another enemy but it was just Aaron.

Wait, just Aaron?

"How did fighting the tentacruel go?" I asked.

"He's on the ground, knocked out," he said with a grin. "Good man."

"Erebus, sir!" Lamaar yelled. "We got everything in the cars!"

"Good work, let's-" I was cut off by the sound of several bodies coming out of the water. "Get to the cars!" I yelled. I turned and ran. I grabbed Aaron by the hand and kept running. Lamaar and Justin jumped up and levitated away.

"I got you!" Morty yelled from behind me. I felt him enter me (shut... UP) and he made me and Aaron fly away. I heard the sound of pursuit behind me but I figured Morty's flight would protect us.

Morty set us down by my Urus. I pushed Aaron into it through the driver's seat. he climbed over to the passenger seat and I got in. I glanced to make sure everyone else got into their audis. Once their engines roared to life, I started mine and floored it.

I wove through the streets making sure there weren't any more surprises. Once I thought it was safe, I made conversation with Aaron. "Dude, you did great today!"

Aaron yawned and smiled. "Thanks."

"No seriously, you kicked some serious butt tonight. I was kind of worried with the tentacruel, but you handled yourself. How did you even do it?"

Aaron laughed. "I sensed his attacks. He was way too obvious."

"What about poison attacks?"

"Didn't give him the chance," Aaron said with yet another yawn.

"Go to sleep dude," I said. "I'll see you later."

**A/N Shout out to my newest follower, shadow55530! There might not be any new chapters up for a hot minute because I have up to 15 written, like I said, I like to be ahead of you guys a tad.**


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